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anger: 



Its Nature, Causes, and Cure. 



BY 



REV. W. H. POOLE, Ivlv. E>., 

OF THE DETROIT CONFERENCE, MICHIGAN. 



" Be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your 
wrath."— st. paul. 




CINCINNATI: 
CRANSTON & STOWE. 

NEW YOR M SUJ&£ILLIPS & HUNT. 

[886. 




6 



<&'*} 



Copyright by 

CRANSTON & STOWE, 

18S6. 



PREFACE 



My design in presenting these pages to the 
public on the Nature, Causes, and Cure of An- 
ger is, that they may, in some humble way, assist 
in promoting the graces of meekness, patience, 
and brotherly love, which are the brightest orna- 
ments in the whole constellation of Christian 
virtues, and the want of which, in our times, 
greatly retards the onward march of the glorious 
Gospel of peace. 

The substance of these pages was given in two 
discourses to my dear and loving friends in Simp- 
son Methodist Episcopal Church, Detroit, and those 
discourses, with several emendations, are here pub- 
lished by the request of the officiary of that Church. 

The old divines, Dell, Drelincourt, Addison, 
Parker, Fawcett, Paley, Watts, and others of 
their time, wrote more largely on the passions 
and emotions than we do now. From them, 



\ 



4 PREFACE. 

especially from Fawcett, I have drawn largely 
the inspiration and material of those discourses. 

I trust that this general acknowledgment 
will be accepted as sufficient for the use I have 
made of the golden truths I have selected from 
those sources. 

J. Fawcett, who wrote one 'hundred years ago, 
says in his preface : " The finest and most beau- 
tiful thoughts concerning the government of our 
passions and the regulation of our manners have 
been carried away before our times, and little is 
left for us but to glean after the ancients and 
the most approved moderns." If any thing, old 
or new, in these pages shall, with God's blessing, 
help any one 

" To govern his passions with absolute sway, 
And grow wiser and better as life wears away," 

to God alone be the glory. 

"Seize, then, on truth where'er 'tis found, 
Among your friends, among your foes, — 
On Christian Or on heathen ground ; 
The plant's divine where'er it grows." 

W. H. POOLE. 



CONTENTS 



I. 

PAGE. 

Of Anger in General, 11 

Definitions — Derivation of Word — Its Synonyms — 
Not a Sinful Passion — Anger to be rightly exer- 
cised — Against What — Not the Same as Wrath 
and Strife — Envy, Hatred, and Malice — How dis- 
tinguished from Anger. 

II. 

Nature of Anger, 23 

Human Depravity — A Wrecked Vessel — Man made 
in God's Image — Will-mastery — Arnot quoted — 
Bishop Taylor— T. Adams— Dr. Watts— Ungov- 
erned Anger— What Evils it works. 

III. 

Causes of Anger, 30 

Natural Temperament — Fury shown in the Face — 
Effects of the Passion — Inordinate Self-esteem — 
Haman and Mordecai — Pride — Ignorance — Weak- 



6 CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

ness of Mind — Nabal — Julius Caesar— Plato— Dis- 
cretion — Carelessness and Inattention — Madness — 
Disease or Death from Fits of Anger — Cumber- 
land — Bishop Hall — Archbishop Seeker — Cov- 
etousness— King Ahab— A Choleric Temper — 
Cowper. 

IV. 

Objects and Limits of Anger, 49 

At what may we be Angry ? 1. At Our Own Sins — 
2. With the Vices and Follies of Others— 3. Vi- 
cious Practices and Improprieties in the House 
of God — 4. Moral Disorders, Disobedience, and 
Disrespect often manifest in our own Families — 
But Anger must have its Limits. 



Restrictions op Anger, 58 

1. It must be Impartial — 2. It must be attended 
with Tender Sympathy and Love — Eeproofs and 
Admonitions must be Loving and Tender, though 
Plain and Faithful — 3. Admonitions must be ac- 
companied with Reason, Arguments, and En- 
deavors to Reform — Provocations — Edward III — 
4. Anger must not continue — How Two Good 
Men acted — Pythagoras — Dr. Watts — How some 
Church Officers appeared to Certain Boys— For- 
giveness must follow Anger at an Offense. 



CONTENTS. 7 

PAGE. 

VI. 

When is Angee Sinful ? 71 

We Sin when we are Angry, 1. At the Providence 
of God— Caius Csesar — Jonah — Earthly Comforts 
of Short Duration — Example of Aaron — 2. At the 
Laws of God — 3. At the Doctrines and Teachings 
of the Gospel— 4. At the Good Qualities and 
Prosperity of Others — 5. At Reproof — 6. At Dif- 
ferences in Religious Convictions — Example of 
Jesus — Bigotry and Persecutions in the Church — 
Zeal without Piety — 7. When Anger prompts Us 
to wish or desire Any Thing Unlawful — Rage — 

*f 8. When Anger excites Us to render Evil for 
Evil — Paul's Words to the Church at Rome — 
Readiness to do Acts of Kindness — Counsels and 
Cautions — 9. When Our Anger unfits Us for Our 
Duties to God— Effects of Anger— Our Duty. 

VII. 

Cautions, 93 

Anger destroys our Own Peace — Above Cloudland — 
Storms at Sea— Indulgence in Passion — Blocks 
up the Way to the Mercy-seat— Forgiveness re- 
quired—Destroys the Image of Christ in the 
Soul — Destroys the Spirit of Unity — Injustice of 
Religious Persecution— Anger exposes a Man to 
Danger — Meddling with Strife — Makes Work for 
Bitter Repentance — Stings of Remorse — Cain— 



8 CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Jacob — Balaam — Astyages and Harpagus — Da- 
rius — Alexander — Nebuchadnezzar — Sulla — Admi- 
ral Byron. 

VIII. 
Cure, Ill 

Study the Importance of Our Own Tranquillity — 
Archdeacon Parker — McClintock and Strong's Cy- 
clopaedia — Command over Passion a Relief in 
Suffering — Bearing Provocation Indicative of Wis- 
dom — Plutarch — Dionysius — Plato — Dr. John- 
son — Form a Correct Estimate of Meekness and 
Patience — Hannah More quoted — In the Home 
Circle — Favoritism to be avoided — A Snappish 
Temper — Examples — Study Self-control — Arch- 
bishop Cranmer — James Bruce — The Emperor 
Sigismund — Anecdote of an Indian — Passion tends 
to Darken the Understanding — We must be Eeady 
to Forgive Those Who have injured Us— The Gos- 
pel Rule — Socrates — Oglethorpe — Story of Two 
Merchants — What is Forgiveness ? — Dr. Dwight — 
Learn to expect Injuries and Affronts — Secure 
by a Kind Disposition the Affection and Confi- 
dence of Others — Tenderly care for Others— Do 
not expose Wounds — Be humbled on Account of 
Your Own Follies, Failures, and Errors— Care- 
fully consider the Circumstances of Offenders — 
Passion a Fever — Avoid the Company and Fellow- 
ship of Passionate Persons — Matthew Henry — Let 



CONTENTS. 

Aged Persons guard against Angry, Fretful, and 
Irritable Feelings— Hopes of the Future— Cher- 
ish Good Humor and Christian Cheerfulness — 
Chiron — Pythagoras — Difference between Mirth 
and Cheerfulness — Addison — Be Earnest and Con- 
stant in Prayer — A Turkish Grandee in Hun- 
gary—Have a Constant Sense of the Indwelling 
Spirit — Love to God a Sovereign Kemedy — The 
Example of Jesus — Fury and Fretfulness both 
Inconsistent with Wisdom— Imitating the Lord. 




ANGER 
ITS NATURE, CAUSES, AN 



I. OK ANGKR IN GENERAL. 

"Of all bad things by which mankind are cursed, 
Their own bad tempers surely are the worst." 

— Cumberland. 

"Be ye angry, and sin notplet not the sun go down 
upon your wrath." — Ephesians iv, 26. 

Aristotle says: "Anger is a desire to dis- 
please those who are displeasing to us." Locke 
says : " Anger is an uneasiness of mind, or discom- 
posure of spirit, on the receipt of any injury, 
with a present purpose of revenge." Buck says : 
"Anger is a violent passion of the mind, arising 
from the receipt, or supposed receipt, of any 
injury, with a present purpose of revenge." 
Watson defines it "a resentful emotion of the 
mind on receipt of an injury, and strong dis- 
pleasure at the evil doer;" and Webster, "A 
strong passion or emotion of the mind, excited 
by a real or supposed injury, with an intent to 
injure one's self or others." Worcester further 



V 



ANGER. 



defines it, "Discomposure of mind, excited by- 
real or supposed injury." "Anger," says Farrar, 
"is the emotion of instant displeasure, which 
arises from the feeling of injury, or the discovery 
of injury intended; or, in many cases, from the 
discovery of the omission of good offices to which 
we supposed ourselves entitled. Or, it is simply 
the emotion of displeasure itself, independent 
of its cause, or its consequences." 

The word "anger" comes from the Latin 
" angor" vexation, and " ango" to vex, which is 
a compound of an against, and ago to act. It 
means to act against ; hence, the displeasure. 
Choler comes from the Greek cholera, from ehole, 
bile, because the overflowing of the bile is often 
the cause and the consequence of choler. Rage 
comes from the Hebrew ragaz or rogez, to trem- 
ble, or shake with violent anger, as many per- 
sons do. Fury, in French furie, Latin furor, 
comes from fero, to carry away, because one is 
carried away, or controlled by the emotion when 
it becomes furious. These words have different 
shades of meaning. Choler expresses something 
more sudden and virulent than anger; rage is a 
vehement ebullition of anger; and fury is an ex- 
cess of rage. Anger may be so stifled as not to 
discover itself by any outward symptoms; choler 
is discoverable by the paleness of the visage ; rage 



ANGER. 13 

breaks forth into extravagant expressions and 
violent distortions; fury takes away the power 
of self-control, or the use of the understanding, 
and leaves the man like the fierce tornado, the 
unbridled steed, or the helmless ship in a storm. 

The maxim which Periander of Corinth, one 
of the seven sages of Greece, left as a memorial of 
his knowledge and benevolence, was cholei kratei, 
" Be master of thine anger." Choler is a malady 
too physical to be always corrected by reflec- 
tion. Rage and fury are distempers of the soul, 
which nothing but religion and the grace of God 
can cure. 

The word anger, in the text quoted, comes 
from the Greek orge, hence orgizomai, " anger, 
ire, indignation." It occurs five times in the 
New Testament: "Whosoever is angry with his 
brother;" "The master of the house being an- 
gry." And he was angry, and would not go 
in." " The nations were angry." " Be ye angry* 
and sin not." 

Anger is an affection inherent in our nature. 
It is, therefore, not wrong in itself. It is not an 
evil per se. It is wrong only when it is directed 
to wrong objects or to right objects in a wrong 
way, or with a wrong spirit, or to a wrong de- 
gree of amount and duration. Anger, in itself, 
is as holy a passion as love. Indeed, in its legiti- 



14 ANGER. 

mate form, it is but a development of love — 
love indignant with that which is opposed to 
the cause of truth and honor and happiness. 

In its place, and controlled by meekness and 
wisdom, it is an innocent and useful emotion. 
The man was formed to be angry, as well as to 
love. Both are original gifts and susceptibilities 
of our nature, and both were given to man by 
his Creator. The mettle of the young and vig- 
orous steed is not only harmless, but in the high- 
est sense most serviceable ; without it the animal 
would be of little worth. So it may be said of 
man. He was made to be angry. There are 
times when he ought to be angry, and if he be a 
good man, he must be, but his emotion must be 
under powerful control. As the steed with bit 
and bridle, as the swift ship is controlled by the 
helm, and as the engineer controls the steam in 
the steam-chest, so must the man restrain with 
true meekness and matured grace the passions 
and emotions of his nature. We must not allow 
finger to>be our master, it must always, and upon 
/ all occasions, be our most humble and obedient 
servant. It should never be allowed to make its 
appearance except on proper occasions, and always 
under strict discipline and control. We must not 
condemn every kind and every degree of anger ; 
the passion or emotion simply and-in its own 



ANGER. 15 

nature is necessary, and is to be highly com- 
mended. It was among the original gifts to man 
from his Creator, and was, among others, pro- 
nounced to be very good. Coming from God, 
and planted in us, it is, in itself, an innocent 
passion, allowable on suitable occasions, and to be 
exercised at proper times, and always in a becom- 
ing manner. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who 
has left us an example that we should follow in 
his footsteps, was, when on earth, sometimes 
angry. Mark iii, 5 : " And when he had looked 
round about on them with anger, being grieved 
for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the 
man, Stretch forth thine hand." 

Dr. Whedon says, in his note on this verse, 
"Before proceeding to the performance of the 
miracle he makes a full pause as they stand in 
silent circle before him. They are fixed in obdu- 
rate silence of hatred. For one moment the Sa- 
vior is a judge. There is one glance of that eye 
which, iu^he final day, will rive his adversaries." 
Some have wondered that the Lord 'Should bV 
angry. But justice has its rightful wrath for^ 
guilt. Right is terribly hostile to wrong. God 
is angry with the wicked every day, and so 
the pure and holy Spirit of God may be 
grieved, ve^ed, made angry, and caused to de- 
part. Here is anger without sin ; anger in one 



16 ANGER. 

who knew no sin, and in whose Spirit was found 
no guile. 

This anger, indeed, was a virtue. Their hard- 
ness of heart called for this holy resentment. 
Such conduct as theirs, to one so undeserving, 
could not be looked upon without indignation. 
Coolness and indifference here would be out 
of place. 

When anger, hatred, wrath, or fury are ascribed 
to God, we must not understand a hasty, tumul- 
tuous passion ; these terms indicate his holy and 
just displeasure with sin and sinners. His 
anger is a holy emotion arising from fixed prin- 
ciples, springing out of his holy and just nature, 
and is, therefore, calm, steady, and uniform. In 
this way we should show anger. Anger against 
what? Against sin, as sin; wrong doing, as 
wrong in itself. True repentance generates a 
deadly hatred to evil in all its forms, because it 
is evil ; not because of its penal consequences, 
but because it is a thing which God hates. This 
is holy anger. I have but little faith in the moral 
excellency of those persons who can not go into 
flames of indignation whenever the wrong ap- 
pears in the ascendant. There is a time to hate, 
as well as a thing to hate. There is no good 
man and true who is not a hater. 

Johnson, the great moralist, professed, right 



ANGER. 17 

honestly, he liked an "honest hater." St. Paul 
says: "Who is offended and I burn not?" The 
stronger a man's love for the right, the more tre- 
mendous his anger against the wrong. Strong 
love for the thing loved necessitates strong hate 
for the thing hated. Dante, who loved well be- 
cause he hated, hated wickedness because he loved 
goodness. When a repentant soul muses, not 
only on the sins of others, but on his own past 
sins, the fires of indignation kindle into a blaze. 

The man who has not indignation against sin 
needs truly to repent. David was a strong hater. 
Hear him: "Do not I hate them, O Lord, that 
hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that 
rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect 
hatred ; I count them mine enemies." " I hate 
vain thoughts." " I hate and abhor lying." 

If we ourselves were perfectly free from sin, 
and were surrounded only by creatures entirely 
innocent, there might not be occasion for the ex- 
ercise of anger. But we live in a world where 
fhiquity abounds, where the sacred name of God 
is blasphemed, his holy day set at naught, his 
house neglected or desecrated, his ordinances de- 
spised, where oppression and injustice are every 
day practiced; and with us there are many occa- 
sions for a righteous indignation and for a holy 

resentment. " It is good to be zealously affected 

2 



18 ANGER. 

always in a good thing." Our heavenly Father 
implanted in our natures the irascible passions 
that we might reprove and rebuke the wrong 
doer, and contend earnestly for the right way. 
That passive tameness of spirit which allows the 
transgressor to trample on all law, human and 
divine, and go unreproved and unpunished, is 
very far from promoting the honor of God or the 
happiness of man. 

We read of " the divine displeasures," " the 
anger of the Almighty," " the fury of his wrath," 
" the fierceness of his wrath," " the power of his 
anger," " the fury of the Lord coming up in his 
face." That which pleases the Lord should 
please me, and that which displeases him should 
displease me. Our natures are so depraved and 
disordered by sin, that in this, as in other things, 
the good and the pure and the right are often 
perverted; and, instead of exercising our emo- 
tions and passions unto godliness and good works, 
we indulge, to our own hurt, in the anger that is 
sinful and the temper that is mischievous — we 
exhibit it on trivial occasions, or on inadequate 
provocations. When it becomes rash and re- 
vengeful, or it is kindled into hatred, malice, and 
bitterness of feeling, it is an unmixed evil. 

To consider violent anger as only a mere in- 
firmity incident to human nature, is to form 



ANGER. 19 

wrong conceptions of it. We must remember 
that wrath and strife are as expressly enumerated 
among the works of the flesh, as uncleanness, mur- 
der, or drunkenness; and although not punishable 
in civil law, they are offensive to God, hurtful to 
ourselves, to our fellow-Christians, and to the 
Church of God. 

We use the term, "passions," in its most com- 
prehensive sense, as including all the emotions, 
whether good or evil. To regulate the good and 
extirpate the evil is an imperative duty of all. 
Many of the passions may be summed up in these 
two — love and hatred. Love is the happy pas- 
sion, and contributes very largely to the sum of 
human happiness. Desire, hope, joy, are only 
developments or modifications of love. Desire, 
which must be included among the passions, is 
nothing more than love going out after its object. 
The only difference between love and desire is 
that which exists between a man when he is, sit- 
ting and when he is walking. He is the same 
person, only in a different attitude. Desire is 
love traveling towards the object of its affection. 
Hope is another modification of love. It is love 
out on the watch-tower, casting a glance onward, 
f and anticipating the realization of its desire. Joy 
is another modification of love. It is love rejoic-'* 
ing in the possession of the object. Hatred is a 



20 ANGER. 

passion that stands opposed to love, and develops 
itself in anger, resentment, retaliation, envy, re- 
venge, and lust of power. 

Every passion and sentiment of the mind has 
particular parts of the body in correspondence 
with it, and these are always more or less affected 
by it. Hatred, scorn, love, suspicion, confidence, 
admiration, and every other passion of the mind, 
have particular nerves and muscles in sympathy 
with them, and affect the features in a particular 
manner; so that in remote villages and in those 
countries where the emotions of the heart are not 
attempted to be concealed or disguised, it is an 
easy matter to know the state of men's mind by 
looking in their faces. But in more artificial so- 
cieties, in great cities, and in courts, where many 
are struggling for the same object, where there is 
an everlasting jarring of interest, where men are 
anxious to conceal their designs and wishes, and 
dare not avow the real motives of their actions, 
it is difficult to judge of the feelings of the heart 
by what appears in the countenance. Yet in the 
midst of all this affectation and disguise, men of 
experience and penetration will often see real joy 
through artificial tears, genuine sadness in as- 
sumed gayety, and inveterate hatred lurking un- 
der all the officious smiling display of kindness. 
Art can not long carry on a successful war with 



ANGER. 21 

nature; men can not be on their guard, or keep 
their features in everlasting constraint; the gen- 
uine passion will occasionally show itself in the 
countenance by the sympathizing muscles. The 
hypocrite is that instant detected, and all his sub- 
sequent grimaces are in vain. On the other hand, 
the true Christian, who has loved kindness and 
cultivated the principle of broad benevolence un- 
til it has become to him a delightful and spon- 
taneous instinct, constantly exhibits his love for 
God and for all goodness. 

There is great propriety in grouping envy, 
hatred, and malice as a trinity of evil. They 
often dwell in the same person, producing where- 
ever found "lamentation, and mourning, and Avoe." 
Envy itself is defined to be " pain felt, and ma- 
lignity conceived, at the sight of excellence or 
happiness in others." When envy grows and 
matures it brings forth hatred; and hatred, when 
it is finished, brings forth malice. We have a 
striking example of this union of evil and its 
maturity in the conduct of Joseph's brethren 
towards him. First they envied him, probably 
on account of his superiority or excellence; then 
they hated him, in consequence of the partiality 
of Jacob, their father ; and finally, in their malice, 
they sold him for a slave. 

A still more striking example occurs in the 



22 ANGER. 

conduct of the Jews to Jesus, in whom all excel- 
lence met, when, for envy, they delivered him 
into the hands of the Romans; they envied him 
for the beauty and splendor of that holiness that 
shone so clearly around his life. In their full- 
grown hatred they said, " He hath a devil ;" and 
in their blood-thirsty malice they cried out, u Cru- 
cify him, crucify him." 

" If envy, hatred, malice, reigns, 
And binds my soul with slavish chains, 
O Lord, thy heavenly love impart, 
And drive the demon from my heart." 

The suppression of anger, therefore, must be 
highly conducive to the comfort and happiness 
of personal and home life, the honor of our holy 
religion, the glory of God, and the welfare of all 
classes of community. With a view to the sup- 
pression and removal of this great evil, we pro- 
ceed to examine the nature, sources, causes, con- 
sequences, and cure of anger. 



NATURE. 23 



II. naxurk ok Anger. 

The irregularity of all our passions and emo- 
tions, of our loves and hates, our desires and de- 
lights, originates in the depravity of our nature. 
In the moral as well as in the physical world we 
may plainly see the indications of that wreck and 
ruin which has shattered and destroyed the work- 
manship of the great architect of all things. Out 
on the hidden reef on a dark and stormy night 
a vessel is wrecked. We saw her when her 
lights went out. "We may not, as yet, know its 
name, or cargo, or its destiny. There are coming 
in to the beach, on the surf, among the breakers, 
broken fragments of the vessel. Already we have 
seen enough all along the shore to convince us 
that a ship of great beauty and fine finish has 
disappeared under the wave. The ivy covered 
ruin shows how grand a palace once occupied 
the site, long since deserted. 

So that human wreck, the wreck and ruin of 
mind and heart, of intellect and morals, of fine 
form and manly bearing, shows the grandeur of 
the man when he came forth, richly endowed, 
from the hands of the great master Builder. The 



24 ANGER. 

sin of Eden thrills still in human hearts and 
human intellects. The understanding is still 
darkened, the judgment still perverted, the will 
still perverse and stubborn, the affections alien- 
ated and debased, the passions sensualized and 
uncontrolled, and disorder reigning supreme. 
There are anger, hatred, wrath, envy, debate, de- 
ceit, strife, murder. The vices and follies of 
mankind break forth in a thousand forms, and 
their fiery passions hurry men on to wretched- 
ness and ruin. And yet, among all this general 
demoralization, we see enough of the beautiful 
and the good to assure us that before man "sought 
out many inventions " and followed them, he was 
pure and good, made in the image of God. 
Amid this general wreck there remain traces 
which speak his creator, God. Man has not lost 
all his original perfection and beauty. The dark 
cloud surrounding him has in it some faint rays 
to break the terrible gloom, some bright and 
silvery linings to indicate his ancient splendor. 
The disorders which reign within him, and the 
outbursting passions and storms which appear in 
his outward deportment, arise from an inherited 
depravity, as the streams which issue from an 
impure fountain. To this general source we must 
trace all sinful anger, in all its forms, and in all 
its developments. 



NATURE. 25 

We say of a man who has no will-mastery, 
that he is ruled by his passions ; they govern 
him, not he them. Centuries ago an Arab wrote : 
" Passion is a tyrant which slays those whom it 
governs." It kindles like a fire, and when once 
thoroughly kindled, can scarcely be quenched ; 
or like the torrent which, when it is swollen, can 
no longer be restrained within its banks. Call 
him not a prisoner who has been put in chains 
by his enemy, but rather call him a prisoner and 
a slave whose own passions overpower him and 
destroy him. 

" Sometimes in our latitudes," says Arnot, 
"vapors rising from the ground, and floating in 
our atmosphere, change the white brightness of the 
sun into a yellow or fiery red. A shade that seems 
to take the mirth out of man and beast then lies 
upon the earth. Thus passions, issuing like mist 
from the soul itself, darken the face of God, 
hiding his tenderness, and permitting only anger 
to glance through." 

Bishop Taylor says: "Anger sets the house 
on fire, and all the spirits are busy upon trouble, 
and intend propulsion and defense, displeasure 
and revenge; it is a short madness, and an eter- 
nal enemy to discourse, and sober counsels, and 
fair conversation ; it is a fever in the heart, and a 
calenture in the head, and a fire in the face, and 



26 ANGER. 

a sword in the hand, and a fury all over. It has 
in it the trouble of sorrow, and the heats of lust, 
and the disease of revenge, and the bodings of a 
fever, and the rashness of precipitancy, and the 
disturbance of persecution. If it proceed from 
a great cause, it turns to fury ; if from a small 
cause, it is peevishness; and so it is always ter- 
rible and ridiculous. It makes a man's body 
deformed and contemptible. The voice horrid, 
the eyes cruel, the face pale or fiery, the gait 
fierce. It is neither manly nor ingenuous, and is 
a passion fitter for flies and wasps than for per- 
sons professing nobleness and goodness. It is a 
confluence of all the irregular passions. There is 
in it envy and scorn, fear and sorrow, pride and 
prejudice, rashness and inconsideration, rejoicing 
in evil, and a desire to inflict it." 

T. Adams says : " The angry man is compared 
to a ship sent into the sea which hath the devil for 
its pilot. The anger of mortal man should be 
mortal like himself. But we say of many, as Va- 
lerius Maximus of Sylla, it is a question whether 
they or their anger die first; or whether death 
prevents them both together. If you look into 
this troubled sea of anger, and desire to see the 
image of a man, behold you find fiery eyes, a 
faltering tongue, gnashing teeth, a heart boiling 
in brine, and drying up the moisture of the flesh, 



NATURE. 27 

till there be scarce any part left of his right 
composition." 

Dr. Watts thus speaks : " To be angry about 
trifles is mean and childish; to rage and be fu- 
rious is brutish ; and to maintain perpetual wrath 
is akin to the practice and temper of devils ; but 
to prevent and suppress rising resentment is wise 
and glorious, is manly and divine." 

The intoxication of anger, like that of the 
wine-cup, shows us to others, but hides us from 
ourselves; and we always injure our own cause 
in the opinion of the world when we too passion- 
ately and eagerly defend it. Neither will men be 
disposed to view our quarrels precisely in the 
light we do; and a man's blindness to his own 
defects will even increase in proportion as he is 
angry with others, or pleased with himself. To 
be angry is to revenge the fault of others upon 
ourselves. 

Ungoverned anger is a fruitful source of mis- 
chief to human life and happiness. Many of the 
scenes of public calamity and private distress 
which come to us in our daily press of business, 
and fill us with astonishment and horror, have 
their origin in unbridled passion and uncontrolled 
tempers, which have grown so turbulent as "to 
kindle at the shadow of a wrong." It is this 
that mingles the poisoned chalice, sharpens the 



28 ANGER. 

assassin's dagger, purchases, loads, and fires the 
murderous pistol, bringing sorrow, lamentation, 
and woe upon nations, communities, and families. 
This, through successive ages of the world's his- 
tory, has furnished ample materials for the poet's 
tragic muse and the orator's pathetic declamation. 
The stupid, blundering rage of one king, 
president, cardinal, or counselor has often em- 
broiled nations, otherwise loving and peaceful, in 
war and bloodshed. The anger of bishops and 
priests has deluged the Church of God in blood, 
even the blood of those "of whom the world 
was not worthy." Detestable bigotry, cruel igno- 
rance and superstition, and unhallowed anger have 
made sad havoc in the fold of Christ. Nothing 
can be more remote from the genius of the Gos- 
pel of peace, from the nature of true religion, or 
from the precepts and example of him who is the 
Prince of peace, whose nature is love, and whose 
first and great command is, " Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and mind, and 
soul, and strength, and thy neighbor as thyself;" 
and who has left us an example of meekness and 
charity such as the world never saw before. 
The miseries and mischiefs occasioned by lawless 
anger in the Church, in private associations, and 
in the domestic circle, are without end. How 
true it is, that " where envying and strife are 



NATURE. 29 

there is confusion and every evil work." Anger, 
peevishness, wrath, rage, and implacable resent- 
ment can never be vindicated ; they are so hateful 
in themselves and so destructive in their nature 
and so mischievous in their effects, that they can 
never admit of a defense ; every wise man con- 
demns them. " Wrath is cruel and anger is out- 
rageous ; and who can stand before envy f" 

"The ocean lashed to fury loud, 
Its high waves mingling with the cloud, 
Is peaceful, sweet serenity, 
To anger's dark and troubled sea." 

— Eastbukne. 



30 ANGER. 



III. CAUSES OK ANGER. 

Before the skillful physician will undertake 
to prescribe for the patient, he will first carefully 
and critically diagnose or examine the case. He 
will investigate as to the location of the trouble 
and its primal cause. May we not wisely follow 
his example? 

A leading cause for the existence of anger, I 
think we may safely affirm, is the natural temper- 
ament we inherit from our ancestors. There are 
some persons of temperament so cold, so dull, 
and phlegmatic, that it requires almost an appli- 
cation of gunpowder or nitro-glycerine to rouse 
them to action and quicken their sensibilities. 
Others come into this world with a sanguine, 
nervous temperament — they are generally hot- 
blooded or hot-headed. We see this very clearly 
in the animal kingdom, the dull, crocky, heavy, 
and the lively, sprightly, fiery animal. The 
passions are powers in man which are partly be- 
longing to the body and partly to the mind. 
The temperament of the body has a great influ- 
ence in disposing us to irascibility, or to gentle- 
ness and meekness. Since the passions are not 



CAUSES. 31 

merely or entirely operations of the mind, but of 
the mental exertions in unison with the flow of 
animal spirits and the commotions of the animal 
nature, the differences in the physical and mental 
structure are very marked, especially in disturb- 
ances of mind or of body. 

When, for instance, we see an object that pro- 
vokes our resentment, we not only feel a certain 
impression of mind, but also a certain commotion 
in our bodies. We may not be able clearly to 
explain the connection of mind and body, or how 
the commotion is carried on in our bodies, but 
we know that the animal spirits are agitated, the 
blood is greatly accelerated in its motion. The 
effects of the agitation becoT.e very apparent to 
those around us, even though we may try to con- 
ceal it. Our eyes, eyebrowSj^iostrils, temples, 
cheeks, all betray us on this occasion. When 
Jehovah speaks of the fall of the enemies of Is- 
rael, in the latter days, upon the mountains of 
Israel, he says, speaking after the manner of men, 
the "fury shall come up in my face." (Ezekiel 
xxxviii, 18.) It is an interesting query how the 
blood, the seat of life, is under the empire and 
control of moral impressions. That it is so is 
obvious, as the innocent blush, the fiery glance, 
the scowl of anger clearly indicate. It is very 
evident that our natural constitutions are very 



32 • ANGER. 

different. Certain habits of body more dispose 
to irritability of temper than others. Some are 
more fiery in their nature; they kindle into a 
flame almost by a kind of spontaneous combus- 
tion; are angry at the children, the servants, the 
horses, their tools or implements, sometimes at 
the weather, the sun or moon ; or as Jonah, who 
was angry at the worm, at the wind, the sun, the 
gourd. The writer once saw a man in a fit of 
anger furiously kicking his own gate. The great- 
est commotions often originate in the smallest 
matters, for these most readily interest little 
minds. An angry man, when he returns to 
reason, is angry at himself. 

Swift says, " Our passions are like convulsive 
fits, which make us stronger for the time, but leave 
us weaker forever after." Henry says, " When 
passion is on the throne, reason is out of doors." 
One fretful, angry, peevish disposition disturbs 
the peace of a whole family. Of all hateful 
characteristics there is none so odious and ridic- 
ulous as a selfish and angry temper in a worth- 
less man. He who shows his passions tells his 
enemy where to hit him. Angry men have gen- 
erally good memories. 

"The wildest ills that darken life, 
Are rapture to the bosom's strife; 
The tempest, in its blackest form, 
Is beauty to the bosom's storm ; 



CAUSES. 33 

The ocean, lashed to fury loud, 

Its high wave mingling with the cloud, 

Is peaceful, sweet serenity, 

To anger's dark and stormy sea." 

J. W. Eastburne. 

A fruitful cause of auger is an inordinate and 
unreasonable self-esteem. It is often called pride, 
is sometimes confounded with vanity and some- 
times with dignity. Pride is the high opinion 
that a poor, little, contracted soul entertains of 
itself; while dignity consists in just, great, and 
uniform actions, and is always the opposite of mean- 
ness. Pride is manifested by praising ourselves, 
adorning our persons, attempting to appear before 
others in a superior light to what we are, con- 
tempt and depreciation of others, envy at the 
excellencies of others, anxiety to gain applause, 
impatience of contradiction, and it is the parent of 
anger. A contentious spirit is usually a proud 
one; and only by pride cometh contention. It 
is pride that makes men angry and passionate. 

Collier says: "Pride is so unsociable a vice, 
and does all things with so ill a grace, that there 
is no closing with it. A proud man will be sure 
to challenge more than belongs to him ; you must 
expect him stiff in conversation, fulsome in com- 
mending himself, and bitter in his reproofs." Col- 
ton says : " Pride either finds a desert or makes 
one; submission can not tame its ferocity nor 

3 



34 ANGER. 

satisfy its voracity, and it requires very costly 
food — its keeper's happiness." In society pride 
is essentially exacting, insolent, heartless, de- 
tracting. 

"Pride, of all others the most dangerous fault, 
Proceeds from want of sense or want of thought. 
The men who labor and digest things most, 
Will be much apter to despond than boast ; 
For if your author be profoundly good, 
'Twill cost you dear before he's understood." 

Pride adorns itself with moral corruption, and 
limps and lisps with affected grace, demanding 
far too much of us. We can not pay the price. 
We could not if we would, and we would not 
if we could. 

We have a remarkable illustration of this in 
the anger and rage of Haman (Esther v, 13) : 
"Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I 
see Mordecai, the Jew, sitting at the king's gate." 
He had honors, and dignities, and wealth, and 
place, and power, the smiles of royalty, and the 
applause of the people, but Mordecai had been able 
to retain a treasure which few courtiers pos- 
sessed — a whole conscience — and he could not, in 
his conscience, pay an idolatrous obeisance to any 
human being. Haman was so full of haughtiness 
and self-esteem that he became quite enraged, 
filled with indignation. His anger arose to white 
heat. He breathed nothing but revenge. The 



CAUSES. 35 

life of the offender and the lives of his family 
would not suffice to cool his boiling wrath. A 
gallows, one hundred feet high, must be prepared 
immediately for the man who dares to keep an 
independent conscience. The vast sum of ten 
thousand talents of silver is offered for the king's 
private treasury, if he will only sign a decree to 
destroy a whole nation, to cool Haman's anger and 
quiet his vengeful wrath. Such torment of soul 
did his envy and malice bring upon him. 

What is the cause of this great anger? Let 
us inquire. The answer is, It is pride ; " Only by 
pride cometh contention." "In the mouth of 
the wicked is the rod of pride." Pride keeps 
men in continual vexation, while the meek and 
humble possess their souls in peace and pros- 
perity. The proud man's character is so odious 
that people often take pleasure in vexing him, 
and he has such a lofty opinion of himself that 
he often imagines he is intentionally insulted when 
no one ever thought of such a thing; and he 
considers things an insult to him of which a more 
sensible man would take no notice. He often 
thinks that he is not respected by his equals and 
his dependents as he ought to be ; hence his life 
is full of disquietude and distraction. Angry, 
resentful, malevolent passions torment his soul, 
rob him of repose, and haunt him like specters. 



36 ANGER. 

" Tis all in vain, this rage that tears thy bosom; 
Like a poor bird that nutters in its cage, 
Thou beatest thyself to death." 

How true the words of wisdom, " It is better 
to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to 
divide the spoil with the proud!" It is pride 
that fills the world with so much animosity. In 
the superabundance of self-esteem we forget what 
we are. We claim attentions to which we are by 
no means entitled, and we are rigorous to offenses, as 
if we ourselves had never offended. If our pride 
were subdued, cut down, and plucked up by the 
roots, passion would quickly subside. Humility 
and meekness would take its place, and love and 
peace would prevail instead of war and anger. 
It is difficult for a haughty man to forgive one 
who has caught him in a fault; his resentment 
will hardly cool till he has, in some way, regained 
the advantage he lost, and by some means pro- 
voked the other to do him equal wrong. He 
hates the man he has once offended, and he 
nurses his wrath and keeps it warm. To be 
angry is to revenge the fault of others upon 
oui.elves. There is an old proverb, "That anger 
is'like ashes, which fly back in the face of him 
who throws them." Dr. Arnold, when at Lale- 
ham, once lost all patience with a dull scholar, 
when the pupil looked up in his face and said, 



CAUSES. 37 

"Why do you speak angrily, sir? Indeed, I am 
doing the best I can." Years after he used to 
tell the story to his children, and say, "I never 
felt so ashamed of myself in my life. That look 
and that speech I have never forgotten." 

Ignorance is very often the cause of sinful 
anger, as it is always, more or less, the founda- 
tion of pride. A weak mind is easily kindled 
into resentment, and a fool's wrath is presently 
known ; it rises and flames on the slightest provo- 
cation, it flashes in his countenance like light- 
ning, and breaks out in boisterous language and 
unbecoming expressions that betray great weak- 
ness and folly. A prudent man covereth shame 
by suppressing his resentment, controlling his 
temper, maintaining possession of himself, and 
keeping his wrath as with a bit and bridle. The 
man of ungoverned temper, of uncontrolled anger, 
informs every one with whom he comes in con- 
tact that he is a weak, foolish, ignorant man. 
Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. Solo- 
mon gives this necessary caution : "Be not hasty 
in thy spirit to be angry ; for anger resteth in 
the bosom of fools." It has its quiet and settled 
abode in that bosom. It is the constant com- 
panion, is on hand on all occasions. "He that 
is soon angry dealeth foolishly ; and a man of 
wicked devices is hated." His passion hurries 



38 ANGER. 

him away into many rash and foolish words and 
deeds. " The fool rageth," becomes unmanage- 
able. His whole nature is thrown into a raging 
flame of passion. Advice, cautions, and reproofs 
fall upon his soul as sparks of fire on combusti- 
ble material. " Make no friendship with an 
angry man ; and with a furious man thou shalt 
not go " in company frequently, nor converse 
with him familiarly as friends do, " lest thou 
learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul." 

" The discretion of a man deferreth his anger ; 
and it is his glory to pass over a transgression. " 
That is something more than postponing its 
avengement, it is checking it. It is blowing out 
of existence its first sparks, it is crushing it in its 
very germ. This is his glory. It is a splendid 
conquest. The wise man is liable to passion ; he 
has the same nature and temperament as the ig- 
norant and foolish man, and circumstances in life 
often occur to evoke it. It rushes up within him, 
and its instinct is revenge, but he forbears. In- 
stead of acting under its impulse he waits until 
its fires cool. It is said of Julius Caesar, that 
w T hen provoked he used to repeat the whole Ro- 
man alphabet before he suffered himself to speak ; 
and Plato once said to his servant, " I would beat 
thee now, only I am angry." It is a noble sight 
to see a man holding a calm mastery over the 



CAUSES. 39 

surging billows of his own passions, bidding them 
go so far and no farther. 

A discreet man is disposed to be cautious in 
giving ear to false accusers and" slanderers. He 
knows that they are Satan's instruments. He 
will be likely to prevent all angry feeling until 
he has fully examined all the circumstances of 
what, at first sight, appears to be a provocation. 
He will examine all the circumstances in a clear 
light, and weigh them in a just and even balance. 
The storm and noise of some men clearly indi- 
cate a consciousness of the narrowness of their 
own understandings. They feel their ignorance 
and insufficiency, and appear determined to gain 
by their clamors that attention and regard of 
which they know themselves to be underserving. 
They make up in noise and bluster what they 
lack in sense and intelligence. How the em- 
ployes and domestics of such men are to be 
pitied! In their hearts they must despise those 
empty bawlings and angry blusterings. Seneca 
says truly : " This passion indicates great weak- 
ness." Pythagoras says: "Anger begins with 
folly and ends with repentance." 

"Thou must chain thy passions down; 
Well to serve, but ill to sway, 
Like the fire they must obey. 
They are good, in subject state, 
To strengthen, warm, and animate ; 



40 ANGER. 

But if once we let them reign, 
They sweep with desolating train, 
Till they but leave a hated name, 
A ruined soul, and blackened fame." 

— E. Cook. 

Carelessness and inattention to the state of our 
own hearts is a prolific source of angry passions 
and sinful tempers. "Take heed to thy spirit" 
is a command from God to his people. And 
again : " Take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul 
diligently." (Deuteronomy iv, 9.) "Keep thy 
heart with all diligence; for out of it are the 
issues of life." (Proverbs iv, 23.) Every thing 
depends upon the state of the heart. Jesus said : 
"Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, mur- 
ders," etc. "As a man thinketh in his heart so 
is he." If the heart as a fountain be not kept 
pure, all the streams of life will be poisoned. 
If the heart as a garden be not kept well culti- 
vated, the whole sphere of life will be overrun 
with the thorns and weeds of anger and pride. 
If the heart as a fortress be not kept securely 
guarded, the enemy will come in and blow up 
the magazine. The motions and tendencies of 
the inner man should be kept carefully and con- 
stantly guarded. Our lives will be regular or 
irregular, consistent and happy, comfortable, or 
otherwise, according as we guard our tempers and 
passions or neglect them. It is not enough that 



CAUSES. 41 

we guard our eyes, our ears, our tongues, our 
hands, or our feet; the heart must be carefully 
guarded and kept with all diligence. 

Anger is such a headstrong and impetuous 
passion, that the ancients called it madness ; and, 
indeed, there is but little difference between an 
angry man and a madman while the fit continues, 
because both are void of reason, and blind to the 
state of their own heart. A spark may set a 
town on fire. One fit of anger may give you 
cause to mourn all the days of your life. Quench 
the first rising of the fire. Socrates watched his 
heart so closely, that when he found in himself 
any tendency or disposition to anger he would 
check himself by speaking low, in direct opposi- 
tion to the motions of his kindling displeasure. 
If you are conscious of warmth of temper keep 
your mouth shut, for words fan the flame and 
increase the mischief. 

Fits of anger bring fits of disease. Many a 
person has dropped dead in a rage. " Whom the 
gods destroy they first make mad," and the ex- 
ample is often followed now, for, by making your 
opponent in argument angry, you can all the 
more easily demolish him. Dr. Fuller used to 
say that "the heat of passion makes our souls 
to crack, and the devil creeps in at the crev- 
ices." Anger is a passion the most criminal 



42 ANGER. 

and destructive of all the passions; the only- 
one that not only bears the appearance of in- 
sanity, but often produces the wildest form of 
madness. 

It is difficult, indeed, sometimes to mark the 
line that distinguishes the bursts of rage from 
the bursts of frenzy, so similar are its move- 
ments, and too often equally similar are its 
actions. What crime has not been committed in 
the paroxysms of anger? The friend has been 
murdered by his friend, the child massacred by 
the parent, the Creator blasphemed by the crea- 
ture. Anger is a storm of the human mind 
which wrecks all our better affections, drowns rea- 
son and conscience, and, as a ship is driven with- 
out helm or compass before the rushing gale, the 
mind is borne away without guide or government 
by the tempest of unbounded rage. One angry 
word sometimes raises a storm that time can 
not allay. 

Cumberland says: "The passions may be hu- 
mored till they become our master, as a horse 
may be pampered till he gets the better of his 
rider; but early discipline will prevent mutiny, 
and keep the helm in the hands of reason." 
Bishop Hall says : " The proud man hath no 
God ; the envious man hath no neighbor ; the 
angry man hath not himself. What can he have 



CAUSES. 43 

that wants himself? What is he better that has 
himself, and wants all others ? What is he better 
that has himself and others, and yet wants God ? 
What good is there, then, in being a man, if 
he be wrathful, proud, or envious?" "How 
many there are who check passion with passion, 
and are very angry in reproving anger! Such 
a reproof of vice is a vice to be reproved." 
(Seeker.) 

"As polished steel receives a stain 

From drops at random flung, 
So does the child when words profane 

Drop from a parent's tongue ; 
The rust eats in, and oft we find 

That naught which we can do, 
To cleanse the metal or the mind, 

The brightness will renew." 

Another cause of anger is eovetousness. Men 
often, when crossed in their designs, frustrated in 
their purposes, blasted in their hopes, or disap- 
pointed in their wishes, sink into fretful ness and 
impatience. Take an example. King Ahab had 
all the honor, power, and profit that a whole 
kingdom could bestow. He had the undiputed 
possession of a throne and kingdom. Much 
would have more ; the covetous man is like the 
grave, which never says, " It is enough." Inor- 
dinate desire for wealth is never satisfied ; so 
Ahab coveted the little garden spot of his neigh- 



44 ANGER. 

bor. Naboth, being a Hebrew, and under the 
laws of that nation, could not alienate from his 
heirs and successors that little plot of ground, so 
he refused the unreasonable demand of the king. 
Ahab, who had little thought of the divine law, 
and perhaps less of the rights of his subjects, 
came into the palace so sad and sore displeased 
that he could not enjoy the thousands of good 
things around him, but threw himself upon the 
bed in a rage, and turned his face away and re- 
fused to eat. Poor, petulant, passionate Ahab 
grew sick with vexation; he pined away under 
the hot fever of resentment, and breathed only 
revenge and slaughter. In his anger he slew a 
man, in his self-will he digged through a wall 
and took possession of an innocent man's estate. 
His covetousness overcame his honor and his 
honesty, and pierced him through with many 
sorrows. 

"He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own 
house" with impatience and fretfulness, when he 
can not obtain what his soul lusteth after, or 
when he loses what he had already gained. He 
troubles his own house by niggardly provision 
for the necessities of his family, fretting at every 
outlay, grudging every comfort, disturbing the 
peace of the family by his miserable temper and 
his irritability, anxiety, and angry passions. 



CA USES. 45 

Angry and irritable men are as ungrateful 
and unsociable as thunder and lightning, being 
in themselves all storms and tempests, while quiet 
and good tempered natures are like fair weather, 
welcome to all, and acceptable to all men; they 
gather together all whom the other incenses; as 
they have the good will and good wishes of all 
their neighbors, so they have the full possession 
of themselves, and in patience and quietness 
possess their souls. But how with the angry 
man who is greedy of gain ? Who thinks well 
of an ill-natured, churlish man, who has to be 
always approached in the most guarded and cau- 
tious way ? Who desires him as a neighbor or a 
partner in business? He keeps all about him in 
nearly the same state of mind as if they were 
living next door to a hornets' nest or to a rabid 
animal. Bad money can not circulate through 
the veins and arteries of trade. It is a great 
pity that bad blood can circulate through the 
veins and arteries of the human frame. 

Lamentation is the only musician that always, 
like a screech-owl, alights and sits on the roof 
of an angry man. Anger has been well com- 
pared to a ruin which, in falling upon its vic- 
tims, breaks itself to pieces. ' It is a very dan- 
gerous thing to have such neighbors, for we 
could sit more safely on the horns of a bull than 



46 ANGER. 

to live in quietness with such characters. We, 
therefore, should form no friendship with a per- 
son of a wrathful temper, and go no further than 
is needful with a man of a fiery and unrestrained 
spirit. Solomon said: "He that is slow to wrath 
is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of 
spirit exalteth folly." It requires a man of great 
understanding rightly to control and regulate the 
stormy and choleric temper. It is so com- 
bustible that the tiniest spark of temptation 
will set it in flames; but our great Creator has 
given us an understanding to control and use our 
passions. 

As a rule, the force of intellect in a man is 
always equal to his impulses. Where there are 
mighty impulses, there is powerful understanding 
equal to those impulses. Such a man can be calm 
in the storm or "slow to wrath." Temper is a 
kind of inner atmosphere in which man breathes 
and lives and works. This atmosphere has great 
varieties of temperature, from zero to blood heat, 
and great changes of weather too — serene and 
stormy, cloudy and sunny. This temper, however, 
unlike the outward atmosphere, is controllable 
by man. He can regulate his temperatures and 
his atmosphere, and it will well repay him to do 
it. Our greatest victories are victories over tem- 
per. It endows a man's life with a kind of roy- 



CAUSES. 47 

alty before which meaner spirits bow. " He that 
is slow to anger is better than the mighty ; and 
he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a 
city." To conquer self is a most righteous war. 
His spirit is his own domain. It is the Canaan 
God has given him to conquer and to rule. He 
must drive out the Canaanites before he can truly 
enjoy the land. "The command of one's self," 
says Drexilius, "is the greatest empire a man 
can aspire into, and, consequently, to be sub- 
ject to our passions is the most grievous slavery. 
Neither is there any triumph more glorious 
than that of the victory obtained over ourselves, 
where, w T hilst the conflict is so short, the reward 
shall ever last." 

Cowper has very graphically described an 
ungoverned temper: 

" Some fretful tempers wince at every touch, 
You always do too little or too much ; 
You speak with life, in hopes to entertain ; 
Your elevated voice goes through the brain ; 
You fall at once into a lower key — 
That's worse ! the drone pipe of a humble-bee ; 
The southern sash admits too strong a light — 
You rise and drop the curtain — now 'tis night; 
He shakes with cold — you stir the fire, and strive 
To make a blaze ; that 's roasting him alive. 
Serve him with venison, and he chooses fish ; 
With sole — that's just the sort he did not wish. 
He takes what he at first professed to loathe, 
And in due time feeds heartily on both ; 



48 v ANGER. 

Yet still o'erclouded with a constant frown, 
He does not swallow, but he gulps it down. 
Your hope to please him vain on every plan, 
Himself should work that wonder if he can ! 
Alas! his efforts double his distress; 
He likes you little, and his own still less. 
Thus always teasing others, always teased, 
His only pleasure is — to be displeased." 



OBJECTS AND LIMITS. 49 



IV. OBJECTS AND LIMITS. 

I have said that anger is an affection of our 
nature, and has its lawful objects and limits. 
The text is not a command, it is concession and 
a caution. We may be angry, but we must 
not sin. To be angry and not sin, we must be 
angry at nothing but sin. We are taught how 
we may exercise our emotions and passions un- 
der proper restraints, as occasion calls for their 
exercise. 

1. We may be angry at our own sins. Indeed, 
we ought to be. It is most becoming that we 
should be. Every man who truly repents is 
grieved at his own folly ; and more or less angry at 
himself for having transgressed a holy law, and 
dishonored God. Thus Job xlii, 6, said: "I 
abhor," dislike, detest, and loathe " myself and 
repent." He was filled with indignation against 
himself on account of his sin. Thus the sons 
of Israel were grieved and angry with them- 
selves for having treated their brother and their 
father in the cruel and unnatural way they did. 
Their indignation was turned against themselves. 
"Thus/' the Psalmist said, "my heart was 



50 ANGER. 

grieved, and I was pricked in my reins," deeply 
wounded with sorrow and anger at my sin. His 
mind was wounded and distressed. 

Seneca says : " Let a man consider his own 
vices, reflect upon his follies, and he will see 
that he has the greatest reason to be angry with 
himself." 

2. We may lawfully be angry with the vices and 
follies of others. That meek and quiet spirit 
which is, in the sight of God of great price, is 
not a passive tameness of mind where all steadi- 
ness of principle is renounced, and where a sinful 
conformity to the world vitiates the whole char- 
acter. It is no part of Christianity to yield an 
unlimited compliance with the manners and habits 
of mankind. The true dignity of our manhood 
can not be maintained without a strong and stern 
determination against all wrong. The true purity 
of the Christian character can never be main- 
tained by an easy compliance with the maxims 
and tendencies of those around us. Nehemiah's 
anger was just and reasonable when he heard the 
Jews utter their impatient complaints. He says : 
" I was angry when I heard them cry." (Nehe- 
miah v, 6, 7.) He was too wise and too strong 
a man to be guilty of that rashness which be- 
trays men into the mischiefs of ungoverned pas- 
sion. He "consulted within himself" before he 



OBJECTS AND LIMITS. 51 

publicly expressed his displeasure ; he took time 
for sober thought, and then he rebuked the 
nobles. 

Theophrastus said : " A good man must be 
displeased with the vices of the wicked." The 
meekness so frequently recommended in the Word 
of God is not a sinful easiness and indifference 
with respect to the abominations which are prac- 
ticed in our day. Where is our zeal for God if 
we be entirely calm and unmoved when we see 
his laws trampled under foot, his name dishon- 
ored; when innocency is injured, the widow and 
the orphan robbed ; the house of the Lord treated 
as if it were only a place of recreation or amuse- 
ment; the holy Sabbath despised and lightly 
esteemed? When a friend is ill treated or a be- 
loved brother or sister unjustly reproached, it 
would be criminal to sit in silence and show no 
concern. Where an innocent person is injured, 
the defenseless and helpless trampled upon or de- 
frauded, generosity and compassion call for some 
degree of indignation. Moses's anger was kin- 
dled when he saw the people given to idolatry. 
Lot's righteous soul was vexed with the filthy 
conversation of the wicked. " I beheld the trans- 
gressors, and was grieved because they kept 
not thy law." (Psalm cxix, 158.) "Moses was 
angry with Eleazar and Ithamar." " Jesus looked 



52 ANGER. 

round about on them with anger, being grieved 
for the hardness of their hearts." (Mark iii, 5.) 

One of the late Dr. Spencer's parishioners in 
Brooklyn, New York, met him hurriedly urging 
his way down the street one day ; his lip was set, 
and there was something strange in that gray eye 
of his. " How are you to-day, doctor ?" he said, 
pleasantly. He waked as from a dream, and 
replied, soberly, " I am mad !" It was a new 
word for a mild, true-hearted Christian ; but he 
waited, and with a deep, earnest voice went on, 
"I found a widow standing by her goods thrown 
in the street; she could not pay her month's 
rent, the landlord turned her out, and one of her 
children is going to die ; and that man is a mem- 
ber of the Church ! I told her to take her 
things back again. I am on my way to see 
him." Who will say that this anger was not 
commendable ? 

There is an anger that is always to be depre- 
cated and condemned ; it has death and destruc- 
tion in it ; it is the anger of selfishness and of 
covetousness. And there is an anger that is always 
commendable as majestic and holy as the anger of 
truth and love incarnated. If a man meets with 
tyranny and injustice he should be roused to in- 
dignation to defend the innocent and maintain 
the right. But he must not lay up any enmity 



OBJECTS AND LIMITS. 53 

or harbor any grudge. The flame may not be 
sinful, but the coals are. 

Revenge is always cruel, mean, and sinful. 
" Some call it manhood," says Trapp, " but it is 
rather doghood." The more manly and noble a 
man is the more mild and and merciful he is. 
See the manly David taking the spear and the 
cruse of water from Saul's pillow, and refusing 
to hurt his most implacable enemy. Great men 
could not stoop to do a mean, revengeful act. 
Revenge hurts the offerer as well as the sufferer; 
as in the foolish bee, when in her anger she 
stings you, leaving her sting behind, and so is 
doomed ever after to be only a drone. 

3. We ought to be angry with vicious prac- 
tices and improprieties in the house of God in con- 
nection with public worship. The place appointed 
for public worship has always been esteemed as 
sacred to the service and worship of Almighty 
God. Solomon said : " Keep thy foot when thou 
goest to the house of God, and be more ready to 
hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they 
consider not that they do evil." Moses was the 
meekest man of all that we read of; yet, where 
the honor of divine worship was concerned, none 
was more indignant and resolute than he. See his 
resentment at the golden calf, when in holy indig- 
nation because of the apostasy of a people so 



54 ANGER. 

remarkably favored and distinguished by the 
Almighty, he deliberately broke the tables at the 
foot of the mount, threw the new-made deity into 
the fire, and stamped it into dust, ground it into 
powder, and strewed it upon the water, and made 
the children of Israel to drink of it. 

When Korah and his company presumptuously 
transgressed against the law and order of divine 
worship Moses was very wroth, and in holy dis- 
pleasure said unto the Lord, " Respect not thou 
their offering." When Jesus saw the holy house 
of prayer profaned, and made into a house of mer- 
chandise, a den of thieves, he, the loving Savior, 
who was meek and lowly in heart, corrected the 
abuse with holy resentment; and when he had 
made a scourge or whip of small cords he drove 
them out of the temple. The apostle Paul was a 
model of meekness, a pattern of gentleness ; he 
bore the greatest injuries and indignities with 
astonishing patience, both among heathens, Jews, 
and false brethren ; yet, in the government of 
the Church, when occasion required, he firmly 
and zealously used the rod of discipline. 

4. We ought to be angry with the moral dis- 
orders, disobedience, and disrespect often manifest 
in our own families. To maintain and preserve 
due authority in the home circle, so as to pre- 
vent and suppress disobedience, disorder, negli- 



OBJECTS AND LIMITS. 55 

gence and vice, without forfeiting our own peace 
of mind, and our personal respect is, perhaps, in 
our present condition, and under all circum- 
stances, as difficult a branch of duty as any 
assigned to us by Divine Providence. To train 
up our children in the way they should go, to 
have them in subjection with all gravity, to in- 
struct our households the way of the Lord, and 
command them to keep it, is clearly enjoined 
upon us, as heads of families, by the Sovereign 
of the universe. To put away all iniquity far 
from our tabernacles, to stir up the slothful and 
negligent, to rouse the inattentive, to restrain and 
correct the vicious and unruly, is absolutely 
necessary, this can not be done without manly 
resolution, Christian fortitude, constant circum- 
spection, great forbearance, and an unwavering 
love that can be angry and not sin. The censure 
passed upon Eli was very severe, and we fear that 
it might be said of many fathers in our times 
" His sons made themselves vile and he restrained 
them not." 

The wise and virtuous parent or master is 
armed with true firmness of soul. He knows 
that if his children and servants once conclude 
him to be incapable of resentment they will deny 
him that regard and obedience which is his due, 
and indulge themselves in many things which 



56 ANGER. 

family discipline forbids. The great secret of 
family government lies in maintaining authority 
without moroseness, discipline without tyranny, 
and resentment and disapproval without sin- 
ful passion. The words of the royal Psalmist 
(Psa. ci) are so appropriate that I quote them ■ 
"I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. 

when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk 
within my house with a perfect heart. I will set 
no wicked thing before mine eyes; I hate the 
work of them that turn aside ; it shall not cleave 
to me. A froward heart shall depart from me; 

1 will not know a wicked person. Whoso privily 
slandereth his neighbor, him will I cut off; him 
that hath an high look and a proud heart will 
not I suffer. Mine eyes shall be upon the faith- 
ful of the land, that they may dwell with me ; 
he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve 
me. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell 
within my house ; he that telleth lies shall not 
tarry in my sight." 

No man is expected to live so free from pas- 
sion as not to show some resentment; indeed, I 
have said, that there are times and circumstances 
when he ought to show it; and it is stoical stu- 
pidity not to show it; but it must always be 
attended with and surrounded by such strong 
guards as to restrict it within proper bounds, 



OBJECTS AND LIMITS. 57 

lest our anger should be displeasing to God, 
hurtful to ourselves, and injurious to our fellow- 
creatures. Happy is he who has the least occa- 
sion for its exercise, and 

" Who can govern his passions with absolute sway, 
And grow wiser and better as life wears away." 



58 ANGER. 



V. RESTRICTIONS. 

That our anger may not be offensive to God 
or in any way hurtful to his cause and people, 
let us carefully note a few restrictions : 

1. It must be impartial. Jesus showed the 
great weakness and blindness of the Scribes and 
Pharisees, who exacted tithes of the aromatic 
plants in the garden, such as mint, caraway, and 
anise, and yet omitted the weightier matters of 
the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. To be just 
in tithes and unjust in judgment, punctilious in 
little things and careless on great questions of 
honor and honesty ; obedient to Caesar but diso- 
bedient to God ; to denounce and reprove the 
covetous man and sanction and encourage drunk- 
enness ; to be angry at the drunkard and indulge 
in slander and evil speaking ; to dethrone Bacchus 
and deify self; to blame idolatry and indulge in 
blasphemy ; with mouth and breath and brain 
saturated with tobacco or opium to condemn the 
use of wine — this is to be partial in our con- 
demnation of sin. We should hate every false 
way. All sin is offensive. I must not consult 
my own tastes and tendencies and the appetites 



RESTRICTIONS. 59 

of my friends, and resent some branches of vice 
and connive at others. I must not be strong in 
my condemnation of one offender and spare another 
offender altogether, as deep in guilt; that would 
be to respect persons; and Solomon says, "To 
have respect of persons is not good." Besides, 
such conduct would leave ground for the sus- 
picion that we are not sincere. It might easily 
and justly be inferred that our zeal is selfish, our 
views sinister, our judgment warped, and our 
resentment does not arise from a just sense of the 
evil of sin as sin, or sin in its own nature. Let 
nothing be done through partiality. " I hate 
every false way." (Psalm cxix, 104, 128.) 

2. It must be attended on all occasions with 
the most tender sympathy and love. Love is itself 
the fountain of anger ; the true source and spring 
of anger must be love. It is the love of the par- 
ent that prompts him to punish the erring one ; 
the child may not see it as long as he is a child, 
but time and reason will develop the fact. The 
love of God is the original fountain of his anger 
against sin and sinners. It is not hatred against 
our fellow-citizens that influences the magistrates 
to punish the lawless and disobedient. I have 
seen the chief-justice weep tears of sympathy 
while pronouncing sentence upon the transgressor. 
If, on any occasion, you give way to personal ill- 



60 ANGER. 

feeling and resentful passion, so as to divest your- 
self of pity, love, and sympathy towards an 
offender, you know not what manner of spirit 
you are of. The judge, while he condemns the 
prisoner to death, and makes him a sacrifice to 
the public vengeance, and pronounces the full 
penalty of the law, does so under the exercise of 
his own pity to the offender. The apostle Paul 
strongly and sternly resented the conduct of some 
"who were enemies to the cross of Christ, whose 
God was their belly, who minded earthly things, 
and who gloried in their shame," and, at the 
same time, his resentment was tempered with 
such a degree of love and compassion that the 
mention of their names drew tears from his eyes. 
We must reprove plainly and faithfully, yet 
tenderly and lovingly. The fire of our zeal must 
not be the fires of hate to curse or smite, but the 
fires of heaven to warm, to reform, to save, and 
to bless. We must learn to 

" Hate the sin with all the heart, 
And still the sinner love." 

We may denounce vice, but we must rescue 
the victim. I wish that we could all always 
imitate the pearl oyster; a hurtful particle in- 
trudes itself into the oyster's shell, and it irri- 
tates and vexes and grieves the owner. The 
oyster can not eject the unwelcome intruder, and 



RESTRICTIONS. 61 

what does it do? It goes to work and covers 
the enemy all over with a most precious sub- 
stance extracted from out of its own life, and by this 
means it turns the intruder into a most valuable 
pearl. If we only knew the happy art we might 
grow valuable pearls of patience, gentleness, 
meekness, long-suffering, and forgiveness within 
us by means of that very thing which had done 
us so much harm, and vexed and injured us 
so much. 

Our reproofs and admonitions, though plain 
and faithful, must always be tender and affec- 
tionate. The nature of the case may sometimes 
make it necessary to reprove with warmth and 
firmness, but it must never be done with an 
unfeeling resentment. The apostolic rule is very 
clear (Galatians vi, 1): "Brethren, if a man be 
overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual 
restore such an one in the spirit of meekness ; 
considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. " 
There must be carefulness and caution lest sinful 
anger find shelter under the cover of zeal against 
wrong doing. "The wrath of man worketh not 
the righteousness of God." A tongue set on fire 
of earthly passion is not likely to promote the 
cause of heaven. 

3. Those admonitions and reproofs should 
always be accompanied with reason, arguments, 



62 ANGER. 

and suitable endeavors to reform. If, at any time, 
the reprover grows so violent against his erring 
brother as to seek to hurt him, or to bring reproach 
upon him, without due effort to reclaim him, it is 
properly termed revenge; and revenge is always 
criminal. " Dearly beloved, avenge not your- 
selves, but rather give place unto wrath ; for it is 
written, Vengeance is mine ; I will repay, saith 
the Lord." " Recompense to no man evil for 
evil." "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome 
evil with good." Before we give way to anger, 
we should take time to consider the nature of the 
injury done, and whether it were accidental or 
done with deliberate design. Things appear to a 
ruffled mind very different from what, in reality, 
they are. A little deliberation and calm reflec- 
tion may enable us to see things in a different 
light. If, on reflection, there be just cause for 
resentment, let it be so tempered with reason and 
kindly admonition, that the offender may see at a 
glance that we have his interests at heart, and 
that we only desire his conviction and reforma- 
tion. Even the heathen moralists taught that 
we should endeavor to reclaim an offender, not 
by the violence of anger, but by forcible, reason- 
onable, and friendly admonitions, for surely the 
physician will not be angry with his patient 
whom he wishes to recover. Socrates, finding his 



RESTRICTIONS. 63 

resentment too keen against his servant for an 
offense he had committed, first corrected himself 
for that warmth of temper which his philosophy 
taught him to condemn, and deferred the attempt 
to reclaim the delinquent to a calmer and cooler 
hour. This precaution was truly commendable, 
and worthy of imitation by many Christian 
professors. 

When anger rises to a high degree it swells 
into wrath, fury, and rage, until reason quits the 
helm, and, as the old philosophers say, the blood 
boils about the heart, the fames whereof rise into 
the brain, and reason is, for a time, dethroned. 
The man is distracted, he is partially insane, and 
some persons have gone so far under the influence 
of a long cherished anger that they have actually 
lost their reason, and have had to be treated 
for insanity. If we have just cause to be angry, 
discretion should teach us to guard our tongues 
and our hands and our tempers, that we may not 
sin against God and ourselves. 

While in this world of sin and disorder we 
must, we may expect to, meet with provocations. 
We live not among angels, but among men. We 
may expect trials and vexations, but the frailty 
of the weak, the omissions of the negligent, the 
follies of the imprudent, the levity of the fickle, 
and the anger of the hasty should not so far ruffle 



64 ANGER. 

our spirits as to influence us to use rash words or 
to indulge in improper tempers. 

What meaneth the heat of this great anger? 
Behold how great a matter a little degree of im- 
moderate anger kindleth ! When this passion is 
unguarded it is the great disturber of human life, 
the enemy of private tranquillity, and of public 
happiness. The wise man tells us that anger is 
outrageous; when it rises to a high degree it is 
like the breaking out of waters. It breaks 
through the bounds of reason, of conscience, of 
the laws of God and man, of friendship, and 
even of natural affection, as in Cain, who slew 
his brother. " Cease from anger, therefore, and 
forsake wrath; fret not thyself in anywise to 
do evil." 

It is accorded to the honor of Edward III 
that, one day having laid himself down upon 
the bed, one of his domestics, who did not know 
he was in the room, stole some money out of a 
chest he found open, which the king let him carry 
off without saying a word to him. Presently 
after the boy returned to make a second attempt ; 
the king called out to him without any violence 
of passion, " Sirrah, you had best be satisfied 
with what you have stolen, for if my chamber- 
lain come and catch you he will whip you se- 
verely." The chamberlain coming in and miss- 



RESTRICTIONS. 65 

ing the money, fell into a great rage, when the 
king calmly said to him, "Be content; the chest 
should not have been left open, the temptation 
was too strong for the poor youth ; he wanted 
money more than we do, and there is enough 
left for us." 

4. Anger must not be lasting. "Let not the 
sun go down upon your wrath." When anger is 
permitted to see two suns it becomes fixed and 
rooted in the heart. When we refuse a recon- 
ciliation, and are determined to nurse our wrath 
and keep it warm, it is rancor, it is hatred, it is 
fixed malice, and drives out of the heart all the 
lovely virtues and graces of the Spirit. This was 
the kind of passion, the slow, secret, revengeful 
feeling that Esau had against Jacob, "The days 
of mourning for my father are at hand, then I 
will slay my brother." Such a man gives place 
at once to the devil to irritate and inflame him, 
and keep up turbulent and revengeful passions in 
his mind. He gratifies that malicious spirit by 
yielding to his destructive designs. He medi- 
tates revenge, and is pushed on to execute some 
dreadful purpose of sin and mischief.] 

Two good men, on a certain occasion, had a 
warm dispute, in which both took an earnest 
part. One of them, remembering the exhorta- 
tion of the apostle, " Let not the sun go down 

5 



66 ANGER. 

upon your wrath," just before sunset went to the 
other, and, knocking at the door, his offended friend 
came and opened; when, seeing who it was, he 
started back in astonishment and surprise. The 
other, at the same time, cried out, " The sun is 
almost down." This unexpected salutation soft- 
ened the heart of the friend into tenderness and 
affection, and he promptly returned for an answer, 
"Come in, brother, come in." What a happy 
method of conciliating matters, of redressing 
grievances, and of reconciling brethren! 

11 Thou that didst bow the billow's pride 
Thy mandates to fulfill, 
Speak, speak to passion's raging tide, 
Speak and say, ' Peace, be still !' " 

— Mrs. Hemans. 

Pythagoras, a heathen philosopher, recom- 
mended to his disciples that if any quarrel should 
arise, or any degree of anger be cherished, they 
should, before the sun went down, shake hands and 
become friends again. Let not the sun go down 
upon your wrath to unfit you for your evening 
devotions, or to disturb your repose during the 
night; much less should it remain with you the 
following day. 

Dr. Watts, in an excellent discourse on the 
passions, has given the following description of 
that slow and inveterate anger which is, most of 



RESTRICTIONS. 67 

all, to be dreaded : " Sometimes it spreads pale- 
ness over the countenance ; it is sullen and silent, 
and the angry person goes on from day to day 
with a gloomy aspect and a sour and uneasy 
carriage, averse to speak to the offender, unless it 
be now and then a word or two of a dark and 
spiteful meaning. The vicious passion dwells in 
the soul, and frets and preys upon the spirits; it 
inclines the tongue to tease the offender with a 
repetition of his crime in a sly manner, upon 
certain seasons and occurrences, and that for 
weeks and months after the offense, and some- 
times for years. This kind of wrath sometimes 
grows up into settled malice, and is ever con- 
triving revenge and mischief. May divine grace 
form my heart in a better mold, and deliver me 
from this vile temper and conduct." As we 
should seldom suffer our anger to be awak- 
ened, so the continuance of it should be very 
short. The sullen and long-continued resentment 
above described, is as much contrary to the spirit 
of meekness as a sudden fit of rage and fury. And 
as it becomes a settled and deliberate passion, the 
guilt becomes all the more heinous and marked 
with deeper aggravations in the sight of God. 
One long anger and twenty short ones do not 
differ to any great extent. 

Two boys were one day conversing on the good 



68 ANGER. 

qualities of certain Church officers. "He is a 
good man, I think," said one; "don't you think 
so ?" " Yes," replied the other ; " I think he is 
a good man to hold a spite." That anger that is 
kept alive and nurtured in the heart becomes 
hate, and whosoever hateth his brother is a mur- 
derer; and ye know that no murderer hath eter- 
nal life abiding in him. Haste, then, and for- 
give, and be reconciled while there is enough of 
life left to enjoy reconciliation, and experience 
the renewal of kindness; forgive while you 
have something else to bestow on repentance 
than lingering looks and faltering words. For- 
give that you may be forgiven. "For if ye 
forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father 
will also forgive you ; but if ye forgive not men 
their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive 
your trespasses." 

Half the animosities of social life arise for 
want of a little reflection ; but when the foolish 
act is done, when the uncharitable expression has 
been uttered ; man must defend himself, and by 
so doing he sins against himself and against God. 
When the heart fully perceives what sin is, what 
an injury to the reputation of God, what a spot 
on the beauty of the moral universe, what an 
inlet of wretchedness and pain, under a sense of 
guilt the true penitent will say, O God, forgive 



RESTRICTIONS. 69 

me, and I will forgive those that trespass against 
me. It must come to that sooner or later, or 
you can not offer acceptable worship to God. 
See the Jewish assembly in the act of worship. 
The altar, the victim, the priest, all are ready; 
God's voice is heard, Stop, suspend your worship, 
leave your gift there, for there is a thing of 
greater importance to be attended to first. What 
is that? Can any thing be more important than 
public worship ? " Go, and be reconciled to thy 
brother;" go, and remove all that angry feeling 
from thy bosom. Reconciliation, just here, is 
more important than worship, the tokens of di- 
vine approval can not come to you until all anger 
and hatred be put away. Every word you utter 
is an insult to God, your prayers, your praises, 
your hearing, your worshiping, is worse than tri- 
fling while hostility is in thy heart. It is not 
worship at all, it is presumption, and an abomi- 
nation to God. First, be reconciled to thy brother, 
and then come and worship. Do not grumble at 
the requirement, my brother. All the hindrances 
that exist now will exist to-morrow, and more, the 
longer you postpone your duty the more the ob- 
structions go on increasing. The great head of 
the Church, the future Judge of the universe, 
has said, " Go, and be reconciled to thy brother." 
And shall you not do it? It is not your indi- 



70 ANGER. 

vidual happiness or misery only that becomes 
now involved, but the authority of the divine 
Legislator himself. Many have turned them- 
selves from the Church of God under the in- 
fluence of unkind feelings, and have descended 
lower and lower in sin, become apostates, trav- 
eled on in defense of their conduct, given up all 
their holy and benevolent habits, sunk into the 
low plane of hostility to the Church of God and 
to his children, and into dissatisfaction with them- 
selves, and died wretched, without hope or recon- 
ciliation with God or man. 

"The blossoms of passion, 
Gay and luxuriant flowers, are brighter and fuller of 

fragrance, 
But they beguile and lead us astray, and their odor is 
deadly." 

— Longfellow. 



WREN SINFUL. 71 



VI. WHEN IS ANGER SINFUL? 

In the foregoing remarks I have noted briefly, 
the nature of anger, with its several causes and 
restrictions. I have said that this passion is from 
the great Architect, and that, with other passions 
and emotions it has its own appropriate place ; 
that prudence and piety must always hold the 
reins of government with a strong, steady, firm, 
impartial hand; that wisdom and meekness must 
always have an open eye, and a commanding 
voice to limit and restrict its operations, and 
guide and control its tendencies. As to the 
ocean in all its strong moods the Lord has set 
boundaries, beyond which it can not pass, so 
God has given a divine rule in reference to 
anger. It is, as a rule, very short, but very com- 
prehensive : " Be ye angry and sin not." If, there- 
fore, we indulge in anger at all, it must be at 
such times and at such objects as are lawful, and 
to such an extent only as may not be sinful. 
Sinful anger is not allowable on any occasion, or 
under any circumstances. The law is very plain. 
We must now consider the occasions and circum- 
stances when we transgress this rule. 



72 ANGER. 

When we are angry with the providence of God 
our anger is sinful and unwarrantable. The dis- 
pensations of divine Providence are dark and 
mysterious to us. Our range of vision is, at best, 
very narrow and circumscribed. His ways are, 
like his throne, surrounded by clouds and dark- 
ness. Sometimes his ways are grievous and af- 
flictive to us. When we hope for smiles and 
blessings there come frowns and chastisements. 
Those afflictions are from a Father's hand. They 
are correctives, not corrosives ; they are medic- 
inal, and, like most medicines, they are not 
pleasant to the taste. These cross our inclina- 
tions and plans, and sometimes seem to oppose 
our secular interests, and often interrupt our 
pleasures and arrangements. Under the disap- 
pointment we are apt to fret and worry, if not 
to grow angry and impatient, to strive with our 
Maker, and to struggle and chafe like a bullock 
unaccustomed to the yoke. 

More of the graces of humility and meekness 
would have taught us to be submissive and pa- 
tient, to bear up under the chastening hand of the 
Lord, and kiss the hand and the rod, and say 
from our heart, "He doeth all things well." 
W T hen Caius Caesar made a grand banquet, and 
had his guests all invited, and every thing in 
order, the storm cloud gathered on the sky, and 



WHEN SINFUL. 73 

thunder and lightning prevented the noble lords 
and ladies from attending the feast. Csesar 
grew angry with the heavens, and impiously re- 
proached the Deity. We have, in the case of 
Jonah, a striking instance of anger against the 
dispensations of divine Providence. This prophet 
was sent to preach to the people of Nineveh, to 
declare unto them that within forty days that 
great city would be overthrown and destroyed. 
This royal commission, of course, implied if they 
continued impenitent. Jonah was so reluctant to 
go and deliver his message, that he fled from the 
presence of the Lord, and took a through ticket 
to the western isles, where other gods were wor- 
shiped. When out on the high seas going west- 
ward, the sea became exceeding tempestuous, and 
the sailors, who feared God, threw the runaway 
prophet overboard. By a train of marvelous 
and miraculous interpositions his life was pre- 
served, and, at length, he went to deliver his 
awful message. The Ninevites heard the Word, 
realized the situation, repented in good earnest, 
and sought and found mercy. God spared the 
city, for his mercy endureth forever. Jonah, 
instead of rejoicing at the success of his ministry, 
was greatly displeased, and filled with those rest- 
less, impatient feelings which always betoken an 
angry, petulant, unsanctified heart, in direct rebel- 



74 ANGER, 

lion against the dispensations of divine Provi- 
dence. He sat down in bad humor, sullen and 
angry. The blessed Lord, who knows how weak 
his servants are, prepared a large leafed plant, a 
gourd, to form a grateful shade to protect his 
servant from the heat of the sun. Jonah was, 
no doubt, tired and nervously exhausted, and was 
exceeding glad of the gourd, and the quiet rest 
and comfortable shade he enjoyed. 

All earthly comforts are, however, of short 
duration. When we set our hearts on any 
earthly comfort we have reason to expect its 
speedy removal ; the days of mourning for its de- 
parture are near at hand. There came a worm 
and it smote the gourd, that it withered. No 
gourd can flourish, no earthly comfort can bless, no 
transient joy or grief can come without the divine 
Word. The prophet's joy was, like all earthly 
bliss, very short. While rejoicing in it, he knew 
not that it was going. Created comforts are 
withering things ; they perish while we admire 
them ; they come forth like flowers and are cut 
down. That comfort proves least secure which, 
to us, is most dear. But whether God gives or 
takes away, whether he send a gourd or a worm 
to destroy that which he has sent, still he is car- 
rying on the same design of instruction and 
blessing to us. His intention is to humble and 



WHEN SINFUL. 75 

instruct us, and to confirm our hearts to trust 
him at all times and under all circumstances. 
There were lessons of tenderness, of compas- 
sion, of patience and humility, which Jonah 
must learn. 

While we are morose, unkind, and resentful 
to those around us, we do them very little good, 
and the infinitely wise Disposer of events has 
many ways to teach us that tenderness and sym- 
pathy in which he delights, and which, to us, is 
a great source of power. 

Who would have thought of a prophet lost in 
anger and impatience, hurried away with angry 
passions for the loss of his gourd ! Astonishing ! 
And yet we may find many things in our own 
tempers and spirit equally astonishing, and even 
more so, than this. Jonah wished in himself to 
die, and said, "It is better for me to die than to 
live." "Jonah, dost thou well to be angry?" 
" I do well to be angry, even unto death." To 
be angry at God, and angry for a thing so small 
as a gourd! How unaccountable, that anger 
should so blind the mind that a man should, 
under its influence, make light of sin, and bid 
defiance to death; justify his rage, and wish to 
depart this life under influence so bad. His 
angry passion carried him away beyond himself, 
until he lost all reverence for God, and cared 



76 ANGER. 

more for his own honor and comfort than for 
God's glory. See him fretting and scolding at 
the warmth of the day and the cold of the night, 
at the repentance of man and the mercy of God. 
He was angry because Nineveh was spared with 
her six score thousand souls, and wished to die 
because he could not have his own way. 

How different were the temper and spirit of 
Aaron under that awfully severe dispensation which 
cut off his two erring sons at one stroke, under the 
manifest displeasure of God. He, under a sense 
of the divine justice, held his peace. He uttered 
not one murmuring word. Once, we are informed, 
that David was angry when the Lord made a 
breach upon Uzzah. Years after, when his heart 
had been washed and purified, how different were 
his temper and his spirit, when he said, " It is 
the Lord, let him do as seemeth good unto him." 

When we are angry at the laws of God we 
commit sin. His laws are holy, just, and good. 
HagioSj holy in all its claims; dikaios, just in 
itself; agathos, good in all its fruits. "But his 
delight is in the law of the Lord ; and in his law 
doth he meditate day and night." "The law of 
the Lord is perfect, converting the soul ; the tes- 
timony of the Lord is sure, making wise the 
simple." " The law of thy mouth is better unto 
me than thousands of gold and silver." " Thy 



WHEN SINFUL. 77 

word is very pure; therefore thy servant loveth 
it." "By them is thy servant warned, and in 
keeping of them there is great reward." 

These are expressions from the hearts of true 
servants of Christ. There are those, however, 
who dislike the restraints of the law, and who 
have in their hearts feelings of rebellion against 
it. In their minds they say, "Let us break their 
bands asunder and cast away their cords from 
us." " We will not have this man to reign over 
us." The law of God reproves them, and, in- 
stead of fighting their sins, they fight the law, 
and the lawgiver, and say, "Depart from us; we 
desire not the knowledge of thy ways." 

We sin when Ave are angry at the doctrines and 
teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have 
many mournful evidences of the fall, none more 
convincing, perhaps, than the hatred men show 
to the truth. Jesus himself was teaching in the 
synagogue on the holy Sabbath day (Luke iv, 
28, 29) : " And all they in the synagogue, when 
they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 
and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and 
led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their 
city was built, that they might cast him down 
headlong." Stephen was speaking the truths of 
the Gospel, and they gnashed on him with their 
teeth. So enraged were they at the words he 



78 ANGER. 

spoke they became furious, and " then they cried 
out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and 
ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out 
of the city, and stoned him." Paul was preach- 
ing one Sabbath day, and many were listening to 
the truth : " but when the Jews saw the multi- 
tudes, they were filled with envy, and spake 
against those things which were spoken by Paul, 
contradicting and blaspheming." Seneca says: 
"The wrathful man is angry with the truth 
itself, when it is in opposition to his inclination 
or his humor." 

When we are angry at the good qualities and 
prosperity of others it is exceedingly sinful. It 
was this species of anger that prompted Cain to 
slay his brother, because his own works were 
evil, and his brother's righteous. The same en- 
vious feeling prompted Joseph's brethren to throw 
him into the pit, and then to sell him to the 
merchantmen. He was hated for his dreams and 
for his words. The sweet singer of Israel was 
hated by King Saul, because it was evident that 
the Lord was with him. He says of himself, 
" They hated me without a cause," and " they also 
that render evil for good are mine adversaries; 
because I follow the thing that good is." Ma- 
caulay says : " John Wesley was the best abused 
man in all England." 



WHEN SINFUL. 79 

" Beside thine hearth, thine home within, 
Lies couched and still a deadly sin, 

O chain it while 'tis time! • 
Learn on thy brother's joy to gaze 
With thankful eye ; and heaven's high counsel praise, 
That crowned him with the forfeit of thy crime." 

— Keble. 

We sin when we are angry at reproof. David 
said truly and beautifully, Psalrn cxli 5 : " Let 
the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness; 
and let him reprove me, it shall be an excellent 
oii which shall not break my head." If we do 
that which deserves a rebuke, and a friend is 
so just and kind as to deal faithfully with us, we 
surely ought not to return anger for love and 
hatred for kindness. David blessed- God for the 
counsel of Abigail, and thanked her as the mes- 
senger of the Lord. It was no disparagement to 
Naaman to hearken to the reproof of his servant, 
when he turned away in a rage from the prophet, 
refusing the prescribed cure for his leprosy. 

Seneca says: "A good man rejoices when he 
is admonished." We all know men who can not 
endure a reprover. It is most ungrateful to be 
angry with a kind reprover, who has our welfare 
at heart, and warns us of that which would be 
pernicious to us. Then, if ever, our anger is to 
be condemned. The reprover may magnify his 
office, and give unnecessary pain, his admonition 



80 ANGER. 

may be lacking in prudence, yet it is an act of 
kindness, and to resent it would be highly criminal. 
Solomon says : " As an earring of gold, and an 
ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon 
an obedient ear." These are two things rarely 
found, and yet of great value. 

" While passions glow, the heart, like heated steel, 
Takes each impression, and is worked at pleasure." 

— Young. 
When we are angry at those who differ with us 
in religious convictions, and in forms of worship 
our anger is sinful. The wordy wars that have 
been fought out, to the bitter end, by religious parti- 
sans in the pulpit, on the platform, and through 
the press, during the past eighteen hundred years, 
have done the cause of Christ more real harm 
than all the opposition of all the infidel writers 
since the days of the apostles. The right of pri- 
vate judgment was clearly taught by Jesus Christ 
and his apostles. He charged his disciples to 
call no man Father, Rabbi, Master, upon- the 
earth, in the sense in which men claim to be 
leaders or masters, having dominion and authority 
over the faith and consciences of men, or over 
the judgments and opinions of others. Christ 
alone, by his Word and Spirit, is the only infal- 
lible teacher and guide, and to him only we owe 
absolute obedience and implicit faith. He ex- 



WHEN SINFUL. 81 

horted the common people to search the Scrip- 
tures, and so to judge for themselves. 

Jesus also gave us an example, in that he fre- 
quently quoted the Scriptures as illustration and 
proof of the great truths which he taught : 
"Have ye not read this Scripture/' and "the 
Scripture was fulfilled ;" " This day is this Scrips 
ture fulfilled in your ears;" "He that believeth 
on me as the Scripture hath said." And he 
commanded the people to "search the Scriptures," 
and find out for themselves, and so judge and 
determine. The apostles, also, and the early 
teachers of Christianity maintained this right 
and privilege as divinely secured to the people 
for all time. St. Paul says : " Let every man be 
fully persuaded in his own mind; I speak to 
wise men, judge ye what I say ;" and we are in- 
formed that their hearers assumed this duty and 
privilege, "and searched the Scriptures daily, 
whether these things were so." Such exhorta- 
tions from Christ and his apostles could have no 
meaning, if the right of private judgment is not 
clearly implied ; indeed, they were a deception 
and a fraud if that privilege be denied. 

Let no man, therefore, indulge in angry in- 
vective against those who conscientiously differ 
with him in articles of faith or in forms of wor- 
ship. Let him not thunder his anathemas against 

6 



82 ANGER. 

us who differ with him, because by those anath- 
emas he curses himself, " for thou condemnest 
thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same 
things." Why should I be displeased with any 
man for differing with me in religious matters? 
He has the same reason to be angry with me for the 
liberty I have thought proper to assume. Gently, 
brother, gently, " Who art thou that judgest 
another?" The right of private judgment is the 
very groundwork and foundation of Protestant- 
ism, the heart and soul of the Reformation. 
Seal the lips of thy brother and gag his utter- 
ances because he dares to differ with thee, and 
then the lady, that has her seat on the seven hills, 
will find a way to padlock your tongue, and do 
your thinking for you, and the dark ages may 
again envelop the nations until another John 
Huss and Latimer and Ridley and Rogers and 
Taylor and Luther may arise to claim again the 
right of free thought and free speech. O no, 
my dear reader, the right to think for myself, 
and to differ, if needs be, is a God-given right, 
and we must, under all circumstances, concede 
that right to others which we claim for ourselves. 
Happy for us that the warmth of persecution on 
religious grounds has very much abated. The 
fires of persecution, if not entirely extinguished, 
are at least smothered. Even in old despotic 



WHEN SINFUL. 83 

countries, many are emerging into the light, and 
strongly asserting the right of a Bible for every 
man, and little by little the fetters of tyranny 
and religious despotism are falling to pieces, and 
multitudes are searching the Scriptures for them- 
selves, and thinking and judging and acting ac- 
cording to the light they have in all those mat- 
ters which relate to the worship of God, the 
salvation of the soul, and rights of conscience. 

The Church of God, since the days of its 
infancy has been always more or less exposed 
to the rage of blind bigotry and persecution. 
This anger has sometimes been confined to Church 
disputes and newspaper quarrels, but more fre- 
quently it has broken out into open, roaring 
wrath, and statecraft and priestcraft and self- 
craft have desolated the fair garden of God, and 
his children " had trial of cruel mockings and 
scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and impris- 
onment. They were stoned, they were sawn 
asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword ; 
they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins ; 
being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the 
world was not worthy) ; they wandered in de- 
serts, and in mountains and in dens, and caves 
of the earth." What a pity it is that Christianity 
should ever have been so explained — I would say 
so perverted — as to feed the unholy fires of resent- 



84 ANGER. 

ment and promote angry passions ! Surely nothing 
can be more diametrically opposite than religion 
and revenge, piety and persecution, prayer and 
plunder, the service of God and the slaughter of 
men, the fires of love and the fires of hate. 
Angry passions and resentful feelings in religious 
disputes naturally lead to persecution, as in the case 
of John Calvin and even of the Puritan fathers. 
"The beginning of strife is as when one let- 
teth out water; therefore, leave off contention 
before it be meddled with." "A fro ward man 
soweth strife ; and a whisperer separateth chief 
friends." " Let all bitterness and wrath and 
anger and clamor and evil speaking, be put away 
from you, with all malice ; and be ye kind one 
to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, 
even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." 
Those angry, furious partisans ought to have 
learned the genius of the Gospel. When one of 
the disciples of Jesus came unto him, saying, 
"Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy 
name, and we forbade him, because he followed 
not with us," Jesus said, " Forbid him not." 
Afterwards, when the Samaritans did not receive 
him, John and James being too violent in their 
resentment, and having but a scanty acquaintance 
with the genius of the Gospel, spoke of com- 
manding fire to come down from heaven to con- 



WHEN SINFUL. 85 

surae them, Jesus turned and rebuked them, and 
said, " Ye know not what manner of spirit ye 
are of." We profess respect and zeal for the 
religion of Jesus; and shall we at the same time 
allow ourselves to be carried away with that 
harshness and severity which are so opposite to 
its nature, its spirit, and tendency ? Let us not 
presume to retain the Christian name if we are 
so entirely destitute of the Christian spirit, lest 
Jesus should say unto us : "I know thee, that 
thou hast a name that thou livest, but thou 
art dead." 

A meek and gentle disposition, amidst the 
strife of interfering interests, prevents the vio- 
lence of contentions, renews endearments, softens 
animosities, and keeps alive the seeds of har- 
mony. But, 

" Passions, indulged beyond a certain bound, 
Lead to a precipice, and plunge in woe 
The heedless agent." 

When our anger provokes us to wish or desire 
any thing unlawful, it becomes sinful. This de- 
sire in the mind has given origin to the word 
malevolence, from male, "ill," and volo, "to 
wish" — to wish ill to any person. Also the 
word malediction, from male, "ill," and dico, "to 
say" — a declaration of a wish of evil against a 
person. Sometimes it assumes the form of an 



86 ANGER. 

imprecation, the praying down of evil upon a 
person whom we suppose to have offended us, or 
it may be upon ourselves. This was the case 
with Moses once, though always commended for 
his meekness; yet, on a very trying occasion, 
his language indicates a defect in that for which 
he is most commended, "If thou deal thus 
with me kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, and 
let me not see my wretchedness." Like the 
angry prophet, he thought " it is better for me to 
die than to live; I do well to be angry, even 
unto death." In some cases, as perhaps in Mo- 
ses' case, it arises from disappointment, but those 
sudden gushes of a feeling which wishes for death, 
produced by any of those passions, can not at all 
be excused. 

"Full many mischiefs follow cruel wrath, 
Abhorred bloodshed and tumultuous strife, 
Unmanly murder and unthrifty scathe,* 
Bitter despite, with rancor's rusty knife, 
And fretting grief — the enemy of life." 

— E. Spenser. 

Rage is bad. When a man gives way to sin- 
ful temper he dishonors his nature, he imperils his 
well-being, he wars with God, and the order of the 
universe. A celebrated moralist has written with 
great energy on this subject: "What shall we 
think of him who has a soul so infected that he 
can not be happy himself until he has made 



WHEN SINFUL. 87 

another miserable? What wars may we imagine 
perpetually raging in his breast ; what dark strata- 
gems, unworthy designs, inhuman wishes, dread- 
ful resolutions ! A serpent curled in many in- 
tricate mazes, ready to sting a traveler, and to 
hiss him in the pangs of death, is no unfit em- 
blem of such an artful, unsearchable projector." 
Our anger in all cases becomes sinful when 
it excites us to render evil for evil to him who has 
injured or oifended us; Christianity never tol- 
erates this to friend or foe. We should beware 
of giving way to revengeful or passionate resent- 
ments, which may lead us to desire the hurt of 
the offender by way of retaliation. This would 
be to place ourselves on his level, to imitate his 
example, and to become sharers in his guilt. No 
amount of provocation should ever irritate us so 
far as to abate our concern for peace. We 
should keep so strict a watch over our anger as 
never to meditate, contrive, or attempt any thing 
by way of private and personal revenge. If we 
be compelled in self-defense, in defense of person, 
family, or property to seek satisfaction in due 
course of law, we should never do it in an angry, 
quarrelsome spirit, but from a desire to preserve 
peace and the good order of society, and to ob- 
tain justice from the wrongs and injuries of 
unreasonable and wicked men. 



88 ANGER. 

There is great beauty and a wealth of mean- 
ing in Paul's words to the Church at Rome (Ro- 
mans xii, 18-21): "If it be possible" — it may 
not be, such may be your circumstances, but if 
it be possible — "as much as lieth in you, live 
peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge 
not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath ; 
for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will 
repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy 
hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him drink ; 
for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on 
his head. Be not overcome of evil, but over- 
come evil with good." Let us never presume to 
wrest the scepter out of God's hands, it is his 
prerogative to inflict the deserved punishment. 
Leave your cause with him. 

We should be ready to do every office of kind- 
ness and compassion, even to our worst ene- 
mies. "Bless them that curse you, and pray for 
them that despitefully use and persecute you." 
Let no ill treatment you meet with from others 
so far inflame your angry passions as to make 
you desirous of rendering evil for evil, or even 
to cause you to weary of showing kindness to 
them. Let the power of divine grace on your 
heart so manifest itself in the exercise of meek- 
ness, kindness, and forbearance under the highest 
provocations, that all, even your greatest ene- 



WHEN SINFUL. 89 

mies, may see in you how a Christian can live 
and love and forgive and be forgiven. This is 
the way not be overcome of evil," but to overcome 
evil with good. Anger, as a sinful passion, is never 
justifiable, but it oftentimes exists without any 
real cause whatever. Like a lion enraged at his 
own shadow, the angry man is angry at the reflec- 
tion of himself; it is his own image that he sees. 
He imagines and, in many cases, this is all ; his own 
evil temper colors all besides. The object of his 
wrath is innocent, perhaps as quiet as an unruf- 
fled brook. Be sure, before you give way to 
anger, that your neighbor or friend has injured 
you, and then be sure that you forgive him. But 
even if an apparent cause does exist, and some 
one really has injured you, is not that enough? 
He that sinneth wrongeth his own soul ; shall 
you, therefore, sin and bring condemnation upon 
your soul ? To have an enemy is bad, to be one 
is far worse. And why should you undergo self- 
punishment for the crime of another? 

There is a degree of madness connected with 
anger, as we have seen. We see it in Xerxes, who 
chastised the waves, and cast fetters into the sea 
to bind it, because it smashed his bridge of boats. 
How intoxicated with passion he was ! Contrast 
the madman with the calm, sensible Athenodorus, 
who, when about to retire from the court of 



90 ANGER. 

Augustus Csesar, gave the emperor this advice: 
" Remember, whenever you feel angry, that you 
neither say nor do any thing until you have re- 
peated all the letters of the alphabet." This is good 
advice ; but it is better, when a man feels himself 
sinking into the gulf of angry passion, to turn the 
eye of his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, and cry 
out, " Lord, save, or I perish." The rising storm 
will pass away, and all will be calm and peaceful. 

" The wise will let their anger cool, 
At least before 't is night ; 
But in the bosom of a fool, 
It burns till morning light." 

When our anger unfits us for the duties which 
we owe to God and to one another, then our 
anger is sinful. We can not love God and hate 
our brother ; the two things are not, in any 
sense, compatible. John says : " A new command- 
ment I write unto you, which thing is true in 
him and in you ; because the darkness is past, 
and the true light now shineth. He that saith 
he is the light, and hateth his brother, is in dark- 
ness even until now. He that loveth his brother 
abideth in the light, and there is none occasion 
of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his 
brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, 
and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that 
darkness hath blinded his eyes. We know that 



W11EN SINFUL. 91 

we have passed from death unto life, because 
we love the brethren. He that loveth not his 
brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his 
brother is a murderer ; and ye know that no mur- 
derer hath eternal life abiding in him. If a man 
say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a 
liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he 
hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath 
not seen ?" 

Violent anger darkens the whole horizon of 
the soul, obstructs the visions of faith, and bur- 
dens the conscience with a sense of guilt, and 
puts the whole soul out of tune for the service 
and work of God. An angry man can not pray, 
not even the Lord's prayer, with his emotions 
boiling up in him. He can not praise God, for 
all his affections are turned in an opposite direc- 
tion, and praise is the natural and proper ex- 
pression of love, not of hate. v 

To reprove, rebuke, and exhort are duties we 
owe to one another. Giving and receiving re- 
proof are duties which we owe to each other, 
and are of great advantage to our growth in all 
the graces of the Christian. "If a brother be 
overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual 
restore such an one in the spirit of meekness," 
not in a spirit of anger. Reproof should never 
be given with a wrathful spirit or an angry tongue, 



92 ANGER. 

"for the wrath of man worketh not the right- 
eousness of God." No amount of the grace of 
sanctification places us above the need of admo- 
nition. We are to watch over one another in 
love. In like manner, reproofs should be re- 
ceived with humility and gratitude; thanks to a 
kind and faithful reprover, and praises to God 
for the blessings of sanctified Christian friendship. 
Coleridge says: "Advice is like the snow, the 
softer it falls the longer it stays, and the deeper 
it sinks into the mind." 

"Full many a shaft at random sent 
Finds mark the archer little meant, 
And many a word at random spoken 
May soothe or wound a heart that's broken." 

We are also commanded "to be pitiful and 
tender hearted ; to weep with those that weep, 
and to rejoice with those that rejoice, to love as 
brethren, to follow after the things which make 
for peace, and things whereby we may edify 
another." Now, whatever temper of mind unfits 
us for those duties, it is wrong, it is oifensive to 
God, and destructive to" the work of divine grace 
in our own hearts. 



CAUTIONS. 93 



VII. CAUTIONS. 

Anger agitates and destroys our peace of 
mind. It is true, as the prophet said, " Thou 
wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is 
stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." Not 
all the powers of evil, nor any of the agencies of 
the world or the flesh can disturb the peace of 
the good man, and yet one flash of sinful anger 
cherished, or indulged in, may disturb his peace 
and greatly disquiet his soul. How serene and 
peaceful would every man's soul be to himself if 
true Christian meekness did but reign in his breast 
to the complete casting out of anger, wrath, 
malice, and all bitterness. I say casting out; it 
is not enough to suppress and chain down those 
disturbing foes — they must be thrown out, and 
that with a holy violence and a firm determina- 
tion that they must enter no more. It is not 
enough that we cut off, here and there, a branch 
of this deadly upas tree of sin; we must cut it 
down and cut out every fiber of its roots from the 
soil of the heart, and plant in its stead the tree 
of life. We must crucify the old man with his 
lusts, passions, and propensities, mortifying the 



94 ANGER. 

flesh and the deeds of the body that we may 
live. "Mortify, therefore, your members which 
are upon the earth," " that the body of sin may be 
destroyed, that henceforth we shall not serve sin." v 

There is an altitude above us that is always 
free from the tumultuous whirlwind, the sweeping 
tempest, and the surcharged cloud, away above 
and beyond us. It is only in the regions of the 
atmosphere near our earth that thunderings, light- 
nings, and fierce storms generate and disturb the 
quiet of nature. So there is a state of mind, an 
altitude of Christian experience, where we may 
have a calm and undisturbed tranquillity, a con- 
stant sunshine, and a heartfelt joy. As our 
poet sang : 

" Anger and sloth, desire and pride, 
This moment be subdued ; 
Be cast into the crimson tide, 
Of my Redeemer's blood." 

Then— 

"Anger I no more shall feel, 
Always even, always still, 
Meekly on my God reclined ; 
Jesu's is a quiet mind." 

There is often sunshine up on the mountain 
side when storms rage furiously below. Chris- 
tianity furnishes a sublime experience where all 
is calm and joy and peace. Come up on the 



CAUTIONS. 95 

mountain, dear reader, and Jive in the clear 
sunlight. 

The fiercest storms at sea, which make such 
sad havoc of our shipping, never stir the depths 
of the ocean ; down below all is quiet and mo- 
tionless. As on the surface the white caps are 
driven into spray, and the ocean seems as if it 
were boiling over, so, under the fierce gales of 
temptation, one man is lashed into fury, and, for 
the time, he loses all control of himself, while 
his neighbor is calm and peaceful as a Summer 
evening, far from danger and from fear, knowing 
that the love of God casteth out fear. O for an 
experience in the deep things of God ! 

There may be a seeming quietness of behavior, 
arising from self-constraint or education or a 
nature past feeling, sometimes prompted by a 
mean, disguised intention, while the spirit is rough 
and turbulent. "The words of his mouth were 
smoother than butter, but war was in his heart ; 
his words were softer than oil, yet were they 
drawn swords." As a man is in heart, so is he. 
By the frequent indulgence of this furious pas- 
sion it gains strength, and after a little indul- 
gence it becomes a habit, and fastens itself, like 
other habits, as with hooks of steel, destroying all 
the man's internal tranquillity, and kindling his 
whole soul into a flame at every little provoca- 



96 ANGER. 

tion. He is so completely under the power of 
this demon passion, that he can not control his 
anger until the case be examined, and the offense 
proven ; nor can he, by any means, proportion 
his anger to the cause which excites it, or regu- 
late it by any rule of propriety or discretion. 
Such a slave to a bad habit is surely to be ranked 
as among the unhappiest of mortals. As he ad- 
vances in years he grows more and more miser- 
able, and his natural weakness and infirmity 
increase his irritability of mind, until his friends, 
long since weary of his peevishness, and his chil- 
dren almost afraid of him, leave him a to devour 
his own heart in solitude and contempt," as an 
old moralist has it. "Thy own wickedness shall 
correct thee," says the prophet. Such men "eat 
the bread of wickedness." They sow wicked- 
ness and reap the same. Thorny reaping it often 
is. " It is an evil thing and bitter, that my fear 
is not in thee, saith the Lord." When humility, 
meekness, and patience find a throne in the heart, 
they reign secure. Though storms may over- 
spread the sky without, all is quiet and calm 
within. The man's peace is too deep and too 
high to be aifected by the thunders that echo on 
another's sky. He sits calm on tumult's waves, 
he controls his feelings, curbs his tongue, bridles 
his passions. He has a peace which the world 



CAUTIONS. 97 

"can neither give nor take away." "He de- 
lights himself with the abundance of peace." He 
has ten thousand times more satisfaction in for- 
giving injuries than others can have in revenge. 

Sinful anger blocks up the way to the mercy- 
seat, and hinders us in our approaches to the di- 
vine throne. Through the work and mediation 
of our Lord Jesus Christ a new and living 
way has been opened for us to the throne of 
grace. It is the exalted privilege of all be- 
lievers in Christ to come, at all times, to that 
throne and find grace to help in time of need. 
But if we come to God with anger and ill feeling 
in our hearts, God will not hear our prayers. No 
man can come acceptably to God with wrathful 
feelings cherished in his heart. The tumult of 
passion makes us both unable and unwilling to 
pray, and should any come in such an angry 
mood they consciously realize their own unfit- 
ness, and they can not acceptably draw near to 
God. St. Paul says: "I will, therefore, that 
men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands with- 
out wrath and doubting." All bitterness, wrath, 
and evil speaking must be laid aside, if we desire 
to hold sweet communion with God. 

The words of Jesus are very plain and de- 
cisive on this point. " Therefore, if thou bring 
thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that 

7 



98 ANGER. 

thy brother hath aught against thee" — and that 
is the time and place most likely to remember any 
alienation of mind — " leave there thy gift before 
the altar, and go thy way ; first be reconciled to 
thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." 
And Jesus makes it still stronger: "For if 
ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly 
Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive 
not men their trespasses, neither will your Father 
forgive your trespasses." On another occasion 
Jesus illustrated the same principle by an exam- 
ple : " And his lord was wroth, and delivered him 
to the tormenters, till he should pay all that was 
due unto him. So likewise shall my Heavenly 
Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts 
forgive not every one his brother their trespasses." 
The man who has an unforgiving feeling in his 
heart can not be forgiven, and he can not hold 
sweet communion with God. The way to the 
throne of mercy to him is barred, until he can 
dismiss his unholy resentment, and become recon- 
ciled. His anger unfits him for devotion, indis- 
poses to duty, and if performed, it renders it 
unacceptable to God. 

Anger destroys the image of Christ in the soul. 
The apostle teaches that we are to "put on the 
new man, which is renewed in knowledge after 
the image of him that created him ; that ye put 



CAUTIONS. 99 

off concerning the former conversation the old 
man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful 
lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 
and that ye put on the new man, which after 
God is created in righteousness and true holi- 
ness." And that this inward mau is to be "re- 
newed day by day." "Let that mind be in you 
which was also in Christ Jesus." He was pa- 
tient under the rudest insults and most barbarous 
treatment. When he was reviled, he reviled not 
again ; when he suffered he threatened not. " He 
gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to 
them that plucked off the hairs; he did not hide 
his face from shame and spitting." For the 
greatest evil he returned the greatest good ; he 
shed his blood, and gave his life to redeem those 
who treated him with disdain, and as they mocked 
his dying agonies, he prayed for them, saying, 
" Father, forgive them, they know not what they 
do." In him there was no rashness, no resent- 
ment, no unholy anger, no pride, no unholy 
ambition. 

This distinguishing part of the Lord's char- 
acter was so generally known that the apostle 
Paul said: "I beseech you by the meekness and 
gentleness of Christ." Meekness is the inward 
temper, gentleness is the manifestation of it 
toward others. This inward temper and outward 



100 ANGER. 

behavior were most clearly seen in Christ. How 
unlike him those are whose tempers are angry 
and hateful, and whose outward man is boister- 
ous and resentful. "Love your enemies, bless 
them that curse you, and pray for them who 
despitefully use you, and persecute you." 

Sinful anger destroys the spirit of unity among 
brethren. The Church is the body of Christ, and 
all ye are brethren. " Let brotherly love con- 
tinue," and by all suitable means cultivate it, 
promote it, make sacrifices in order to its devel- 
opment. "Let nothing be done through strife 
or vainglory ; but in lowliness of mind let each 
esteem other better than themselves." If con- 
ceited, self-seeking persons, confident of their 
own comparative excellences and inconsiderate 
of others, come together in the spirit of party or 
pride or self-glorying, how soon, and how easily, 
are the sparks of a great and destructive fire kin- 
dled ; each, in turn, being angry with the other, and 
indulging in mutual recrimination and complaint. 

Some men seem to be of such a disposition 
that they are not only careless of pleasing, but 
studious to offend. They imagine that they 
aggrandize themselves by teasing and mortifying 
those around them. They delight in wanton provo- 
cations and contemptuous treatment of others. 
This is tyranny, and has its origin in pride and 



CAUTIONS. 101 

self-esteem, and it usually provokes both pity and 
resentment. Some are morose and sullen. Their 
resentment often becomes noisy and quarrelsome. 
They have no peace and rest themselves, and 
they interrupt the quiet and happiness of all who 
come within their reach. Some good, well- 
meaning men are so unhappily addicted to warmth 
of temper that the poet's inquiry concerning his 
angry deities seems appropriate to them : " Can 
so much wrath be found in heavenly minds?" 
In all our intercourse with those persons we must 
be careful to have soft answers always on hand, 
knowing that "A soft answer turneth away 
wrath ; but grievous words stir up anger." Give 
them room and time to cool by keeping out of 
their way ; by all means escape to a calmer shore. 
A learned and pious writer on the absurdity 
and injustice of religious persecution says : " Could 
we see the members of Christ's mystical body 
divested of bigotry and prejudice, no longer 
divided by parties and factions, nor stained and 
sullied by viciousness of life, joined together by 
a union of friendly dispositions and kind affec- 
tions, and vying with each other in the promo- 
tion of mutual benevolence and good will, this 
would give us the strongest idea we can at pres- 
ent have of the happiness of the future world, 
and of those sublime social pleasures which the 



102 ANGER. 

righteous shall enjoy when they come to the 'city 
of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and 
to an innumerable company of augels, to God, 
the Judge of all, to Jesus, the mediator of the 
New Covenant, and to the spirits of just men 
made perfect.' " Without a degree of candor, for- 
bearance, and mutual love, the peace of the 
Church can not be maintained, nor can brethren 
dwell together in unity. There must be recip- 
rocal endeavors to maintain the unity of the Spirit 
in the bond of peace. When the members of 
the Church are meek and lowly in heart, full of 
kindness and benevolence, of gentleness and meek- 
ness toward one another, then, and then only, 
they adorn the doctrine of God their Savior, and 
evidence the true spirit of Christianity. Then 
they will be careful not to inflict the least wound 
on the feelings of another. Then they will be 
courteous and kind in their address, affable and 
mild in their behavior, ever ready to oblige and 
as willing to be obliged by others. Then will 
reproofs be administered with the greatest tender- 
ness and love, and all the kindly offices per- 
formed with ease and delight. Each one will 
then think and feel that it his duty and honor to 
be clothed with humility, and to put on in his 
whole behavior that charity which is the bond of 
perfectness. Every one will then seek to please 



CAUTIONS. 103 

his neighbor, for his good unto edification ; to 
conceal, by all means, any superiority of rank, 
position, or talents, which might, in any way, be 
a hindrance to the weak and less favored of the 
flock ; to be kind and tender-hearted, to be piti- 
ful and courteous — in a word/to prove himself or 
herself to be under the influence of the wisdom 
from above, which is " first pure, then peaceable, 
gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy 
and good fruits, without partiality, and without 
hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is 
sown in peace of them that make peace." Of 
such a Church it might be said : " The beauty 
of the Lord our God is upon them." "Behold, 
how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to 
dwell together in unity ! It is like the precious 
ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the 
beard, even Aaron's beard ; that went down to 
the skirts of his garments ; as the dew of Her- 
mon, and as the dew that descended upon the 
mountains of Zion ; for there the Lord com- 
manded the blessing, even life forevermore." 

Anger frequently exposes a man to danger. 
When an angry man meets one furious like him- 
self they very often inflict wounds that are mor- 
tal. Many of the sad records of murder so 
prevalent in our time may be traced directly to the 
influence of an angry temper. " Wise men turn 



104 ANGER. 

away from wrath, but a fool's lips enter into con- 
tention ; his mouth calleth for strokes/' and he 
often receives them as a reward for his anger and 
insolence. His ill nature shows itself in his 
readiness to pick quarrels and originate strifes. 
All those splenetic fools are- mischief makers. 
Their temper is turpentine, which a spark will 
set ablaze. "It is an honor for a man to cease 
from strife; but every fool will be meddling." 
Meddling is the parent of strife. An officious 
interference with the business of others, a prying 
into their concerns creates discord. All strifes, 
domestic, social, ecclesiastic, and political may be 
traced to meddlesomeness. 

No one draws his sword or uses his cane 
against the meek and inoffensive lamb, while the 
noisy, snarling cur frequently feels the stroke. 
The cool and dispassionate man escapes many 
troubles which the angry and revengeful one pulls 
down upon his own head. The associates and 
domestics of an angry man live in constant sus- 
picion and anxiety, no one knowing the moment 
when his anger may kindle into unreasonable 
reproaches or fury. When his anger kindles, it 
is no wonder that mutual animosities prevail, and 
none can ever tell where the mischief may end. 
It is better to dwell in the corner of a housetop 
than with such a one in the most splendid and 



CAUTIONS. 105 

spacious palace. A judicious writer on this sub- 
ject has said, "that in the ruffled and angry- 
hour we view every appearance through a false 
medium. The most inconsiderable point of in- 
terest or honor swells into a momentous object, 
and the slightest attack seems to threaten imme- 
diate ruin. But after passion or pride is sub- 
dued, we look around in vain for the mighty 
mischiefs we dreaded; the fabric which our dis- 
turbed imagination had reared totally disappears. 
We have irritated the passions of others, we have 
alienated a friend or many friends, we have sown 
the seeds of future suspicion, malevolence, or 
disgust." "He that is hasty in spirit, exalt- 
eth folly." 

Anger makes work for bitter repentance. We 
often hear of teachers and parents who, undertaking 
to correct their children in a fit of passion, have 
inflicted irreparable injury upon the helpless and, 
perhaps, innocent child. What must they feel 
on every sight of their poor, deformed, afflicted 
children blinded or disabled by their fury ! What 
terrible stings of remorse must attend them 
through every succeeding day and night of 
their lives ! 

The greater part of the disasters which men 
suffer from in this life are brought upon them 
by their own ungoverned passions. Should they 



106 ANGER. 

escape the physical or external evils which their 
passions naturally occasion, they can not shun 
the internal punishment which is all the more 
severe because it is self-inflicted. The govern- 
ment of this world is so administered that the 
divine laws execute themselves against the trans- 
gressor, and carry their sanctions along with 
them; there is no need for the prison of hell to 
be unlocked, or the thunders of Jehovah to be 
poured forth in order to punish the angry and 
cruel man. He is self-punished. It is enough 
that those furious passions, which render such 
persons the disturbers of others, be suffered to 
burn and smolder and rage within. Who can 
think of the condition to which Cain had reduced 
himself by his angry passion without a feeling of 
horror ? Stung with the keenest anguish and 
remorse, he was a terror to himself, and was 
dreaded by all who knew him. Under the lash- 
ings of his conscience, in the bitterness of his 
soul he cried out, "My punishment is greater than 
I can bear." He was angry with his brother 
Abel, because his own works were evil and his 
brother's righteous. Heaven smiled upon the 
one and frowned upon the other. Having nursed 
his anger and indulged it, it grew to be malice; 
and cherishing his resentment to that degree it 
became murderous, and at last his passion be- 



CAUTIONS. 107 

came his master, and he imbued his hands in his 
own brother's blood. 

Many of the evils that endanger the life of 
man arise from anger protracted into malevo- 
lence, and exerted and gratified in revenge. The 
angry feeling has no sooner burnt out or spent 
itself in deeds of terrible cruelty and blood, than 
the victim is filled with sorrow and shame at his 
own cruelty and madness. But no amount of 
sorrow can repair the mischief done in the mo- 
ment of angry passion. We could scarcely have 
credited the veracity of the historians who record 
the deeds of cruelty and blood, did we not see in 
our own day, and in our own happy land, the 
same causes still producing the same effects. 
What tides of human blood have been shed to 
gratify this cruel and furious passion ! How sol- 
emn and how striking the prophetic exclamation 
of the inspired Jacob concerning his two son s 
(Genesis xliv, 5-7) : " Simeon and Levi are breth- 
ren ; instruments of cruelty are in their habita- 
tions. O my soul, come not thou into their se- 
cret ; unto their assembly ; mine honor, be not thou 
united ; for in their anger they slew a man, and 
in their self-will they digged down a wall. Cursed 
be their anger, for it was fierce ; and their wrath, 
for it was cruel ; I will divide them in Jacob, and 
scatter them in Israel." 



108 ANGER. 

The wrathful man is cruel to himself. His 
worst wounds are self-inflicted ; and many men 
have died in a fit of rage. The tortured soul 
has rushed from its clay tenement, amoug fiends and 
furies, its most befitting companions. "Wrath," 
says Job, "killeth the foolish man, and envy 
slayeth the silly one." He is cruel to his family, 
to his children, and servants; as when a man is 
intoxicated with wine. He is cruel to his beasts 
of burden." A good man regardeth the life of his 
beast; but the tender mercies of the wicked are 
cruel." Thus Balaam desired a sword that he 
might take the life of the animal that saved his 
life. How many excellent and useful animals 
groan under the cruelty of the passionate man ! 
The Jews were terribly cruel and unjust to the 
blessed Savior because of their angry passion : 
"And all they in the synagogue, when they heard 
these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up 
and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto 
the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, 
that they might cast him down headlong." 

"Wrath is cruel." Astyages, king of Persia, 
being displeased with Harpagus, invited him to 
supper, and caused him to feed upon the flesh of 
his own son ; and, when the repast was over, he 
asked him how he liked the repast, at the same 
time showing him the mangled remains of his 



CAUTIONS. 109 

son. When Darius had conquered Scythia, (Eba- 
sus, a nobleman whom he had conquered, re- 
quested the tyrant to leave one of his three sons 
with him to comfort his distressed father, and to 
content himself with the service of the other two. 
The emperor promised that he would dismiss 
them all from his service and immediately caused 
them all three to be slain, and the dead bodies to 
be thrown at the feet of the unhappy father. 
Alexander, in his anger, at a festival murdered 
his own friend Clitus because he was too honest 
to flatter him in his crimes; and threw Lysi- 
machus to the fury of a lion. Nebuchadnezzar, 
in his anger, being full of fury, caused the three 
Hebrew children to be cast into a fiery furnace, 
heated sevenfold. Lucius Sulla, in his anger 
against Marcus Marius, caused his legs to be 
broken, his eyes to be pulled out, his hands to be 
cut off", and his body to be torn asunder. 

Admiral Byron, of the British navy, was an 
eye-witness to the following shocking exhibition of 
brutal anger. We quote his own words : " Here 
I must relate a little anecdote of a Christian 
cacique. He and his wife had gone off at some 
distance from the shore in their canoe, when she 
dived for sea eggs ; but not meeting with great 
success, they returned a good deal out of humor. 
A little boy of theirs, about three years old, 



110 ANGER. 

whom they appeared to be doatingly fond of 
watching for the return of his father and mother, 
ran into the surf to meet them. The father 
handed the basket of sea eggs to the child, which, 
being too heavy for him to carry, he let fall ; upon 
which his father jumped out of the canoe, and 
catching up the boy in his arms, dashed him with 
the utmost violence against the stones. The poor 
little creature lay motionless and bleeding, and in 
that condition was taken up by the mother, but 
died soon after. She appeared inconsolable for 
some time, but he, the brute of a father, showed 
little concern about it." How true is the saying 
of Seneca, "There are a thousand evils included 
in this one of anger, and they are diversified into 
a thousand different branches." The worst of 
slaves is he whom passion rules. 

" How terrible is passion ! how our reason 
Falls before it! while the tortured frame, 
Like a ship dashed by fierce encountering tides, 
And of her pilot spoiled, drives round and round, 
The sport of wind and wave." 

— Barfoed. 



CURE. Ill 



viii. cure ok Anger. 

Having examined the nature and causes of 
anger and given a few cautions against its indul- 
gence, we now proceed to mention a few remedies 
for its cure. 

We must first study the importance of our own 
personal tranquillity. The great Architect de- 
signed us for happiness and for usefulness, and he 
has said : " Let every man be slow to wrath." 
" Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and 
clamor and evil speaking be put away from you, 
with all malice." "Ye also put oif all these, 
anger, wrath, malice." "Charity is not easily 
provoked." These precepts clearly show that the 
passion of anger is subject to our control. Ex- 
perience teaches the same thing. We see a per- 
son in a perfect storm of rage, and immediately 
the presence of authority or of a well-known 
Christian teacher causes the hurricane of angry 
feelings to subside, and with a sense of shame, 
and an apology, there is a great calm. This 
passion, like other passions, was given to be a 
servant, and not a master ; and every thoughtful 
man ought to know himself and be lord over it. 



112 ANGER. 

Rev. Samuel Parker, archdeacon of Canterbury 
two hundred years ago, says : " The first reward of 
virtue is its own natural and intrinsic pleasure. 
Acts of love and kindness are in themselves grate- 
ful and agreeable to the temper of human nature ; 
and all men feel a natural deliciousness consequent 
upon every exercise of their good-natured passions ; 
and nothing affects the mind with greater com- 
placency than to reflect upon its own inward joy 
and contentment. So that the delight of every 
virtuous resolution doubles upon itself. In the first 
place, it strikes our minds with a direct pleasure 
by its suitableness to our natures, and then our 
minds entertain themselves with pleasant reflec- 
tions upon their own worth and tranquillity. 
And this is made so apparent from the plainest 
and most easy experience, that it can not possi- 
bly escape any man's animadversion. There is 
no man that does not perceive more satisfaction 
in the affections of love and joy and good will 
than in the black and unquiet passions of malice, 
envy, anger, and hatred that do but torment the 
mind with anguish, restlessness, and confusion. 
A base and ill-natured disposition frets and vexes 
itself with perpetual malcontentedness, and the 
man that gives himself up to any spite and ran- 
cor of mind, is not so much as within the ca- 
pacity of happiness ; at least in the same propor- 



CURE. 113 

tion that good or bad passions prevail in the minds 
of men, in the same are they affected with joy 
or misery. Now this being made plain and visi- 
ble in the whole intercourse of human life, it must 
needs lay a mighty enforcement and manifest 
obligation to a suitable behavior; for what mo- 
tive can we conceive of nearer concernment than 
when the action itself is its own reward or pun- 
ishment ?" 

McClintock and Strong's " Cyclopaedia " says 
of anger : " Like most other emotions, it is accom- 
panied by effects on the body, and in this case 
they are of a very marked kind. The arterial 
blood-vessels are highly excited ; the pulse, dur- 
ing the paroxysm is strong and hard, the face 
becomes red and swollen, the brow wrinkled, the 
eyes protrude, the whole body is put into com- 
motion. The secretion of the bile is excessive, 
and it seems to assume a morbid consistency. 
In cases of violent passion, and especially in 
nervous persons, this excitement of the organs 
soon passes to the other extreme of depression ; 
generally this does not take place till the anger 
has subsided, when there follows a period of gen- 
eral relaxation. The original tendency to anger 
differs much in individuals according to tempera- 
ment; but frequent giving way to it begets a 
habit and increases the natural tendency. From 



114 ANGER. 

the nature of anger it is easy to see that it must 
be — often at least — prejudicial to health. It fre- 
quently gives rise to the bile-fever, inflammation 
of the liver, heart, or brain, or even to mania. 
These effects follow immediately a fit of passion; 
other evil effects come on after a time, as a con- 
sequence of repeated paroxysms, such as par- 
alysis, jaundice, consumption, and nervous fever. 
The milk of a mother or nurse in a fit of pas- 
sion will cause convulsions to the child that 
sucks ; it has been known even to occasion instant 
death, like a strong poison. The controlling of 
anger is a part of moral discipline. In a ru- 
dimentary state of society its active exercise 
would seem to be a necessity ; by imposing some 
restraint on the selfish aggressions of one indi- 
vidual upon another it renders the beginnings of 
social co-operation and intercourse possible. This 
is its use, or as it is sometimes called, its final cause. 
But the more social intercourse comes to be regu- 
lated by customs and laws the less need there is 
for the vindictive expression of anger. It seems 
an error, however, to suppose that the emotion 
ever will be — or that it ought to be — extirpated. 
Laws themselves lose their efficacy when they 
have not .this feeling for a background, and it 
remains as a last resource for man, when society — 
as it does every now and then — resolves itself 



CURE. 115 

into its elements. Even in the most artificial and 
refined states of society, those minor moralities 
on which half the happiness of social intercourse 
depends, are imposed upon the selfish, in great 
measure, by the latent fund of anger which every 
man is known to carry about with him." 

Such are some of the evils of anger to the 
person who indulges in that passion. These are, 
however, confined principally to his physical and 
moral being, but his unruly temper goes much 
farther; it has an influence upon his relation to 
God, to his family, and to society at large. An 
irritable, discontented, and quarrelsome person 
can never be happy himself, and he is constantly 
the cause of irritation and unhappiness to others. 

The man who has rightly studied the impor- 
tance of personal peace and tranquillity will have 
ascertained that self-control is one of the most 
difficult, as it is one of the most noble, of human 
conquests, especially when it is maintained under 
a sense of insult or injury received. In all cases 
the loss of self-control over our temper involves 
the loss of self-respect, and also the inevitable 
loss of the respect of others — that is a loss which 
the world's wealth can not repay. No man can, 
for any length of time, receive the real homage 
and respect of others who lacks the mastery of 
himself. Station, power, wealth may do some- 



116 ANGER. 

thing for him ; native talent and genius still 
more; but not even these can ultimately keep 
back from merited contempt the helpless slave 
of his own miserable passions. Sad, indeed, is 
the spectacle of one born to high honors, and en- 
dowed by 1 ature with princely gifts, from whose 
hand is stricken the scepter of dominion over 
his own spirit. 

The man who has gained a sovereignty over 
himself, who has all his impulses and faculties at 
his command, has a wonderful relief in suffering. 
Such a man has power to steel to some extent his 
nerves, close his senses, and argue away his pains. 
By the power of calm reflection he can make the 
darkest of his sufferings luminous with stars. 
Like the iEolian harp, he can turn the fiercest 
tempests into music. 

To be able to bear a provocation without 
yielding to anger or resentment is indicative of 
wisdom. Some one has said that it would be 
human to resent a wrong, but it would be god- 
like to forgive it. Has any one injured you in 
person, character, or estate? Bear it with pa- 
tience. Anger is like rain, which breaks itself 
upon that on which it falls. Hasty words will 
only rankle and irritate the wound which soft 
and gentle words may dress and heal ; forgive- 
ness entirely cures it, while forgetfulness removes 



CUBE. 117 

all the marks and evidences that a wound had 
been made. A person having behaved very rudely 
to Mr. Boswell, the latter went to Dr. Samuel 
Johnson and talked of the insult very seriously ; 
but the doctor only laughed, and said : " Sir, con- 
sider how very small and insignificant this will 
appear twelve months from this." If a person is 
bent on quarreling with you, leave him to do 
the whole of it himself, and he will soon become 
weary. Even the most malicious animal will soon 
cease to butt against a disregarding object, and will 
usually find his own head more injured than the 
object of his blind animosity. 

Anger is like the waves of a troubled sea; 
when it is corrected with a soft reply, as the 
the ocean is, with a little strand, it retires and 
leaves nothing but the froth and shells washed 
up from its own depths. "It is an easy mat- 
ter," says Plutarch, "to stop the fire that is kin- 
dled only in hair, wool, candlewick, or a little 
chaff ; but if it once have taken hold of fuel that 
hath solidity and thickness, it soon inflames and 
consumes it. When advanced to the highest 
timbers of the roof it becomes much more diffi- 
cult. So he that observes anger while it is in its 
beginnings, and sees it by degrees smoking and 
taking fire from some speech or chaff-like scur- 
rility, need take no great pains to extinguish 



118 ANGER. 

it, but often puts an end to it by silence or neg- 
lect. For as he that adds no fuel to the fire 
hath already as good as put it out; so he that 
doth not feed anger at the first, nor blow the fire 
in himself, hath prevented and destroyed it." And 
the same author again says : " Had I a careful 
and pleasant companion, that should show me my 
angry face in a glass, I should not at all take it 
ill, for to see one's self so unnatarally disguised 
and disordered will conduce not a little to the 
impeachment of anger." 

Dionysius, who had injured Plato, and dreaded 
his anger, said to him : " Thou wilt speak ill of 
me when thou art with thy philosophers in the 
academy." "God forbid," answered Plato, "that 
we should have so much time to lose as to speak 
of Dionysius." Lavater says : " He that can sub- 
due his own anger is more than strong; he that 
can allay another's is more than wise; hold fast 
on him who can do both." Dr. Johnson says: 
" The round of a passionate man's life is in con- 
tracting debts in his passion, which his virtue 
obliges him to pay. He spends his time in outrage 
and acknowledgment, injury, and reparation." 
And Sir Thomas Brown declares: "There is no 
man's mind of such a discordant and jarring 
temper to which a tunable disposition may not 
strike a harmony." 



CURE. 119 

Be sure to form a correct estimate of the im- 
portance of meekness and patience in the home 
circle. Next in importance to peace and tran- 
quillity in my own heart and mind I must study 
how to cultivate and develop the lovely graces 
and fruits of holiness in the enchanted spot we 
call home. In that sacred spot is the magic 
circle within which the weary spirit finds refuge, 
the sacred asylum to which the care and toil 
worn heart retreats to find rest from the toils and 
inquietudes of life. That home may be a castle 
or a cottage, a palace or tent, but whatever may 
be its surroundings or its interior, "it is a green 
spot in memory, an oasis in the desert, a center 
about which the fondest recollections of his grief- 
oppressed heart cling with all the tenacity of 
youth's first love. It was once a glorious, a 
happy reality, but now it rests only as an image 
of the mind." 

Into this home let no noisy, boisterous, angry 
words ever find an entrance. Let no sullen, 
murky, wrathful feelings ever dare to intrude 
themselves among the purest, truest, and holiest 
loves of earth. Husband and wife should not 
indulge in a bitter word or angry thought against 
each other. Parents must not provoke their 
children to anger. Masters must forbear threat- 
ening. Domestic happiness, that only bliss of 



120 ANGER. 

Paradise, that has survived the fall, must not be 
broken or endangered by trivial or by imaginary 
causes. Small offenses must not kindle a flame, 
and kind and loving reproof must take the place of 
intemperate passion and hasty chiding. Hannah 
More says : 

"The angry word suppressed, the taunting thought, 
Subduing and subdued, the petty strife, 
Which clouds the color of domestic life ; 
The sober comfort, all the peace which springs 
From the large aggregate of little things — 
On these small cares of daughter, wife, or friend, 
The almost sacred joys of home depend." 

There is always something becoming and 
proper in the displeasure of master, mistress, or 
parent at what is wrong, and such an amount 
of reproof and chastisement as is necessary to 
the reformation of the offender, but it must 
always be tempered with the meekness and firm- 
ness of wisdom, and regulated by tenderness 
and love. 

Outbursts of anger and passion, uncontrolled 
and unnecessary, render heads of families contempt- 
ible and ridiculous, and convince their domestics 
that they are so far from being fit to govern 
others that they are wholly unable to govern 
themselves. There is a happy medium between 
Eli's indulgence and NabaFs brutal churlishness, 
which, if properly studied and secured, would 



CURE. 121 

preserve peace and tranquillity, with good order 
in all our dwellings. 

There is one mischievous source of anger and 
bitter resentment in families against which par- 
ents and guardians should always carefully guard, 
that of favoritism and partiality among children. 
Perhaps, of all our infirmities, none is more com- 
mon, none is more unreasonable, unwise, and 
unjust, and none more fatal in its consequences 
to ourselves and to those around us. It not only 
sets father against mother and mother against 
father, sister against brother and brother against 
sister, but it often fatally discourages the one who 
is slighted, whom a little kindness might have 
saved, and it almost always ruins the favorite one. 
It sows the seeds of jealousy, anger, discord, and 
malice, which frequently produce innumerable 
mischiefs in families, embittering the lives of both 
parents and children. If parents are unable to 
suppress the feeling of partiality in their own 
hearts, they ought to set a double guard upon 
their actions, which may be understood as an 
index to their feelings. Both prudence and jus- 
tice, as well as policy, demand of them an equal 
distribution of their affection, their countenance, 
and their estates. 

Some of the best of men have made grievous 
mistakes on this point. In sacred biography we 



122 ANGER. 

have some names recorded that stand out as a 
beacon to show the dangerous rocks that lie hid- 
den around there. In the patriarchal age we 
have the partiality of Isaac for his son Esau, 
whose savory meat was all the more tasty, because 
it was from the hand of his favorite son. We 
have Rebecca and her unjust scheming for her 
favorite son Jacob. How the domestic circle 
was for long years a scene of strife and con- 
tention, and how the advanced years of the ven- 
erable patriarch were embittered as he reaped 
that which he had previously sowed! How the 
minds of the two brothers had been alienated for 
the greater part of their lifetime, and their fami- 
lies and children embittered forever! 

The trifling circumstances of personal beauty, 
the color of the eye or of the hair, or the spright- 
liness of expression, and such like trifles, which, 
in themselves have neither merit nor demerit, 
have been quite enough to establish distinctions 
in families which have destroyed the domestic 
peace, flattering and pampering the one and 
cruelly discouraging and embittering another or 
several others. 

How painful it is to live a life of turmoil and 
contention in our homes, to have perpetual dis- 
quietudes where there should be unbroken tran- 
quillity. If a man can not have peace at home 



CURE. 123 

where may he expect to find it ? Some persons 
are complaisant, polite, gentle, and good-humored 
among strangers, but morose, snappish, and ill- 
tempered at home. This is sheer hypocrisy, and 
shows how little concern they have for the com- 
fort and happiness of their families, and also that 
the fear of man has greater restraint over them 
than the fear and love of God. 

There are men now, as there were in the days 
gone by, whose greatest trial of life has been at 
home, and their prudence and their piety, and 
their patience, too, have all been taxed to their 
utmost tension by the bitterness of home life. 
Moses had a querulous Zipporah, ever averse to 
duty. Job had a wife who tempted him to curse 
God and die. Samson had his treacherous De- 
lilah. David's life was embittered by a scoffing 
Michal. Socrates had his Xantippe. John Wes- 
ley's wife nursed her jealousy and kept her 
anger warm. 

In all the departments of home life we must 
study and practice self-control, and by so doing 
we will acquire the power of controlling others. 
E. P. Hood says: "My lads, when a dog makes 
too free, jumps, and bounds over you, you say, 
'Down, Nero! down, sir!' That is what you 
must say when passion rises, 'Down, sir!' " I 
once took a passionate man very much aback 



124 ANGER. 

by asking him to hold his tongue while he felt 
my pulse, or else while I felt his. It is aston- 
ishing how efficacious a moment or two of quiet 
is in the midst of a great storm. When the fit 
of anger is very strong upon you, think how you 
would appear before a glass, or, rather, think how 
you do really appear before God. The greatest 
of all heroes is he who can rule his spirit in a 
great storm. 

"A man's house should be on the hilltop of 
of cheerfulness and tranquillity ; it should be so 
high that no shadows rest upon it, and so situated 
that the morning comes so early and the evening 
tarries so late, that the day has twice as many 
golden hours as those of other men. He is to be 
pitied whose house is in some valley of grief be- 
tween the hills, with the longest night and the 
shortest day. Home should be the center of joy, 
equatorial and tropical." 

Archbishop Cranmer had great control of his 
temper, and understood how to control the pas- 
sions and tempers of others. Though he lived in 
evil times, and had to associate with all classes 
of evil doers, he strangely won the confidence of 
his domestics, and preserved the confidence of his 
friends. Once a plot had been formed to take 
away his life. The kind hand of divine Provi- 
dence, however, so ordered affairs that the papers 



CURE. 125 

which would have completed the plan were inter- 
cepted, and the authors of the plot discovered 
and traced to one of those who lived in the arch- 
bishop's family. Another of the conspirators had 
been greatly served by the kindness shown him 
by Cranmer. Having received the papers he 
took those men to a private apartment in his 
palace, and informed them, with great calmness 
of mind and manner, that some persons in his 
confidence had disclosed his secrets, and even 
accused him of heresy, and had planned for his 
betrayal and murder. They loudly censured such 
villainy, and declared the traitors worthy of death, 
one of them adding, that if an executioner was 
wanted, he would perform the office himself, such 
was his zeal and love for his bishop. Struck 
with their perfidy, he returned thanks to God for 
his wonderful preservation, lamenting the depravity 
of man ; and praying for his would-be murderers, 
he produced their letters, and inquired if they 
knew their authorship. The men now fell on 
their knees, confessed their crime, and humbly 
implored forgiveness. Cranmer mildly and ten- 
derly expostulated with them on their evil con- 
duct, forgave them, and never again alluded to 
their treachery. How calm and self-possessed in 
the midst of a storm ! His forgiveness of inju- 
ries was so well known that it became a by- 



126 ANGER. 

word, a Do my lord of Canterbury an ill turn, 
and you make him your friend forever." 

When James Bruce, the renowned traveler, 
was in Abyssinia, one of the chiefs or governors, 
according to the custom of the country, sent him 
twelve horses, saddled and bridled, desiring him 
to fix on one for his own use. The groom, who 
well knew the temper and habits of the animals, 
urged Mr. Bruce to mount one of them, assuring 
him that it was a most excellent animal, and 
very quiet and safe to ride. It was soon seen 
the animal was extremely vicious, of which the 
man was well aware, and had indeed selected that 
one especially for the stranger with a malicious 
intention. The traveler, however, was well skilled 
in horsemanship. After a severe contest between 
the horse and the rider, the unruly animal was 
successfully curbed and completely subdued. Both 
well exhausted, Mr. Bruce descended unhurt. 
The governor expressed the greatest surprise and 
regret at the transaction, most solemnly protest- 
ing his entire innocence of any design on his 
part, adding, that the groom was already in irons, 
and before many hours passed would be put to 
death. "Sir," said Mr. Bruce, "as this man has 
attempted my life, according to the laws of the 
country, it is I that should name his punish- 
ment." " It is very true," replied the governor, 



CURE. 127 

"take him and cut him in a thousand pieces, if 
you please, and give his body to the kites. He 
deserves to die." "Are you now really sincere 
in what you say?" asked Mr. Bruce, "and will 
you have no after excuses?" He swore solemnly 
that he was sincere, and that there should be no 
interference or excuse. " Then," said Mr. Bruce, 
"I am a Christian; the way my religion teaches 
me to punish my enemies is by doing good for 
evil ; and, therefore, I keep you to the oath you 
have sworn ; I desire you to set this man at lib- 
erty at once, and give him the place in your 
employment that he had before, for he has not 
been undutiful to you." Every one present 
seemed to be pleased with these words. One of the 
attendants could not contain himself, but, turning 
to the governor, said: "Did I not tell you what 
my brother thought about this man ? He was just 
the same all through the Tigres." The gov- 
ernor, in a low voice, very justly replied, "A 
man that behaves as he does may go through any 
country." Be master of thine anger. 

Certain courtiers reproached the Emperor Sigis- 
mund that, instead of destroying his conquered 
foes, he admitted them to favor. The illustrious 
monarch answered thus : " Do I not destroy my 
enemies when I make them my fast friends?" 

We should always be willing and ready to 



128 ANGER. 

make a just and honorable acknowledgment if we 
have given an offense. The little words, " I am 
sorry," " I was mistaken," " I am in error," are 
very easily said, if we have the spirit of a true 
Christian ; and no amount of pride or dignity or 
vanity or selfishness should lead us to vindicate 
an error or to defend a wrong word or act. We 
often fancy that our honor and our dignity are 
concerned ; but true humility and deep penitence, 
would reflect much more to our honor than any 
attempt at a justification of what was unbecom- 
ing or disrespectful to another. Most men are 
very sensitive on the point of honor, credit, or 
reputation, yet few persons duly consider how 
these can best be promoted, or what is the best 
way of obtaining them. Meekness and gentle- 
ness, in the point of true honor, are a thousand 
times better than obstinacy and resentment, both 
in the sight of God and man. 

" He that is slow to anger is better than the 
mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he 
that taketh a city." The Alexanders and Caesars 
of history could conquer others, but they could 
not conquer themselves. A rational victory is far 
more honorable than a physical one. To govern 
an enemy within us is far more glorious than to 
kill an enemy without, and it is far more diffi- 
cult. To quiet intestine broils, to calm and still 



CURE. 129 

an insurrection of passions and tempers in our 
bosoms, and to mortify the intruders — that is, 
to make them dead — is a much grander and 
nobler work than to take a kingdom or conquer 
a nation. 

A short time before the Indian war in Penn- 
sylvania an English gentleman, who lived on the 
borders of the province, was standing one even- 
ing at his own door when an Indian, faint and 
weary, came and asked for a little food. He was 
informed there was none for him ; he then asked 
for a little beer, and received the same answer^ 
Not yet discouraged, he begged for a little water, 
but the gentlemen only answered, "Get you gone 
for an Indian dog." The Indian fixed his eyes 
for a little time on the Englishman and then 
,went away. Some time after this gentleman, who 
was fond of shooting, pursued his game till he 
was lost in the woods. After wandering awhile, 
he saw an Indian hut, and went to it to inquire 
his way to a distant plantation. The Indian said : 
"It is a great way off, and the sun is near down; 
you can not reach it to-night, and if you stay in 
the woods the wolves will eat you up, but if you 
have a mind you may lodge with me." The gen- 
tleman gladly accepted the invitation and went 
in. The Indian broiled some venison for him, 
gave him some rum and water, and then spread 



130 ANGER. 

deer skins for him to lie upon. Having done 
this, himself and another Indian went and lay 
at the other end of the hut. In the early 
morning the Indian called his guest, and offered 
to go with him and show him the way to the 
plantation. Taking their guns, the two Indians 
went ahead, and he followed. When they had 
gone several miles the Indian told him they 
were now within two miles of the plantation he 
wanted ; he then turned round and stood in front 
of him, and said, " Do you know me ?" In great 
confusion the gentleman answered, " I have seen 
you before." The Indian replied, "Yes, you 
have seen me at your own door; and now I will 
give you a piece of advice. When a poor Indian, 
that is hungry and dry and faint, again asks you 
for something to eat and a drink, do n't bid him 
get him gone for an Indian dog." So he turned 
and went away. Which of these two was the 
greater gentleman and the truer hero? The an- 
swer is near at hand. "Therefore all things 
whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, 
do ye even so to them; for this is the law and 
the prophets." We are often told that revenge is 
sweet ; but courtesy, forgiveness, and true noble- 
ness of mind are much sweeter; and let all the 
people say, Amen. 

The man who is given to indulge in anger 



CURE. 131 

would remember that passion has a tendency 
always to darken the understanding, becloud the 
judgment, and warp all the powers of the mind. 
No two persons can differ more from each other 
than the same man differs from himself when on 
fire of passion and when calm and composed. 
If wrath and malice bear rule in the thought 
our judgment of the case before us can never be 
of any weight or any worth. One of the strongest 
proofs of the blinding influence of passion on 
the human mind is the general disposition of the 
angry man to justify his extravagance in word 
and deed, by the old plea, " I do well to be 
angry," although in his cooler and more tranquil 
moments his soul is vexed within him that he 
should have yielded to his besetting sin, and 
destroyed his own peace and proved himself a 
troubler of Israel. By means of late improve- 
ments our engineers now turn on the mighty pro- 
pelling power of steam to arrest the motion of 
our trains instead of the old-fashioned muscular 
force of the brakemen. O that we had some 
agency to help those weak brethren whose old 
habits and passions have so often humbled them 
in the dust, and shaken the last fragment of their 
confidence in themselves, and almost hopelessly 
blighted the hopes of their dearest friends in their 
final victory over "well-circumstanced" sin! O 



132 ANGER. 

that we had some power to make them strong in 
the hour of their weakness, when the enemy 
comes in like a flood ! Thank God ! we have in 
Jesus Christ our Lord the greatest agency in the 
universe to quench the rising fires of passion. 
He says : " My grace is sufficient for thee." In 
the midst, therefore, of weakness we may be 
made strong, out of weakness we may be made 
victorious, for "the weakness of God is stronger 
than men." In Jesus we have a fountain in 
which are extinguished all the rising fires of 
anger, and the soiled and blackened nature is 
washed whiter than snow. This is the only 
remedy for those warm passions and turbulent 
emotions, and this remedy will do for us what 
the new arrangement does to help the engineer 
when he desires to put on the brakes — it turns 
all the forces of his new nature into a new direc- 
tion, and gives him complete mastery over him- 
self, and enables him to sing, " Thanks be to God 
who giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ 
our Lord." 

We must always be ready to forgive those who 
may have injured us, and to show that they are 
forgiven. The law of love must be written on 
our hearts, and the law of kindness expressed by 
our lips. We must show meekness, not only to 
the good and gentle, but to the fro ward also, to the 



CURE. 133 

perverse and wicked, and to those who despitefully 
use and persecute us. A spirit of forgivenss is 
essential to Christianity ; and the consideration 
of God's forgiving us our many sins should in- 
duce us to grant a ready forgiveness of those who 
have injured us. The Gospel rule is, "as God 
for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." This rule 
must soften the hardness and sweep away the 
resentment and anger against others, and dispose 
us to forgive as we have been forgiven. We are 
commanded " to show all meekness unto all men." 
The answer of Cato to one who had struck him 
in the bath, and came to acknowledge his offense, 
was worthy of a great man. "I do not remem- 
ber it," said Cato. It is the glory of a man to 
pass over a transgression. A certain noble cour- 
tier being asked by what means he had continued 
so long in favor, replied, " By being thankful, 
and patiently enduring injuries." Socrates hav- 
ing, without any provocation, received a rude 
blow on his head by an insulting bravado, bore it 
with that patience which has put many pro- 
fessing Christians to the blush. With us it would 
likely lead to a quarrel or a lawsuit. But Soc- 
rates kept cool, and only made this calm and 
humorous remark: "It is a pity that a man can 
not know when he ought to come abroad with a 
helmet on his head." 



134 ANGER. 

"We all 
At some time have had need to say, Forgive ; 
O ! nothing in this low and ruined world, 
Bears the meek impress of the Son of God 
So surely as forgiveness." 

— A. Cary. 

Oglethorpe, governor of Georgia, said, in a 
violent passion, to Mr. Wesley : "That vile serv- 
ant of mine misbehaves, though he knows I never 
forgive." "Never forgive!" said Mr. Wesley; 
" then I hope you never sin." The beautiful re- 
proof overcame the angry governor. 

Two merchants of the same city being neigh- 
bors, and jealous of each other, lived in shameful 
enmity. One of them embracing religion was at 
once condemned for his resentments. He consulted 
a pious friend in whom he had great confidence, 
and inquiring how he should manage to bring 
about a reconciliation, was told: "The best means 
at your disposal is this ; — when any person comes to 
purchase an article you have not, recommend them 
to go over to your neighbor and purchase of him." 
He did so. The other merchant, being informed 
of the person who sent them to him, was so struck 
with the good offices of a man he hated as an 
enemy, that he repaired immediately to his house 
to thank him, and to beg his pardon, with tears 
in his eyes, for the hatred he had entertained 
towards him, and besought him to admit him 



CURE. 135 

among the number of his best friends. His for- 
giveness was soon granted, and the love of God 
closely united those whom self-interest and jeal- 
ousy had divided. 

A little blind boy being asked what forgive- 
ness is, replied : " It is the odor that flowers breathe 
when trampled upon." Did not this precious 
youth, to whom the world was dark, who had 
never seen the pleasant light of the sun, nor 
the beauty of flowers, give the true idea of for- 
giveness ? It is not difficult to feel kindly towards 
those that love you and confer favors upon you; 
but to have a store of good wishes and kind deeds 
for those that abuse and treat you ill, to be like 
the cinnamon-tree, that sheds its sweet perfume 
around the ax-man that wounds it, — this is not 
quite so easy. But it is what the meek and 
lowly Jesus did, and what his true children do. 
Here, then, is a test, by which all may know if 
you love Christ. If ye love them only that love 
you, what thank have ye? How do you feel 
when your friends and associates treat you ill? 
Can you return good for evil? Can you give 
them love for hatred? Can you pray for those 
that injure you? If so, you have this pleasing 
evidence ' that you " are the children of your 
Father which is in heaven, who maketh his sun 
to rise on the evil and on the good." Remem- 



136 ANGER. 

ber that one way to manifest the spirit of for- 
giveness is by kind words. A missionary in 
Jamaica was questioning the little black boys of 
his school on Matthew v, and asked, Who are the 
meek ? A little boy replied, " Those who give 
soft answers to hard questions." This accords 
with Solomon's words, "A soft answer turneth 
away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger." 
Dr. Dwight mentions a man of his acquaint- 
ance, of a vehement temper, who had a dispute 
with a friend, a professor of religion. He met 
with so much frankness, humility, and kindness 
in his Christian friend that, on returning home, 
he said to himself: " There must be something 
more in religion than I have hitherto supposed. 
Were any one to address me in the tone of 
haughtiness and provocation with which I accosted 
my friend this evening, it would be impossible 
for me to preserve the equanimity of which I 
have been a witness. There is something in the 
religion which he professes, and which lam forced 
to believe he feels and enjoys ; something which 
makes him so superior, so much better, so much 
more amiable than I can pretend to be. The 
subject strikes me in a manner to which I have 
hitherto been a stranger. It is high time to 
examine it more thoroughly, with more candor, 
and with greater solicitude than I have done 



CUBE. 137 

hitherto." From this incident a train of thoughts 
and emotions commenced in the mind of this 
man, which terminated in his conversion and con- 
secration of his future life to the work of the 
Christian ministry. The calm, Christian spirit 
of forgiveness in one man led the other man to 
Christ. "Ill passions," says Beaumont, "are like 
rapid torrents, they swell the more for meeting 
with a dam in their violence. He that will hear 
nothing in the rage and fury of anger will, after 
a pause, inquire of you. Seem you to forget him, 
and he will remember himself. It sometimes 
falls out that the end of passion is the beginning 
of reason." 

Learn to expect injuries and affronts, so that 
you may not be surprised when they come. We 
do not live among angels, nor among men free 
from weakness and infirmity. Persons by whom 
we are surrounded are so much like ourselves, 
having tempers and dispositions, bodily and men- 
tal peculiarities such as we have, that they are 
as likely and as liable to err in judgment, and 
to make mistakes, and thus to grieve and offend 
us as we are to grieve and injure them. In all our 
connections and relations we may reasonably look 
for many things to displease and grieve us. Our 
sweetest roses have many sharp thorns ; our earthly 
sweets have more or less bitter mingled with 



138 ANGER. 

them. Our joys are followed closely by sorrows, 
so that we can hardly expect to be perfectly at 
ease in a world of so much change and variety. 
Offenses will come, often even among God's dear 
children; but much more frequently among those 
who are unconverted. Many there are around us 
whose hearts are fully set in them to do evil; 
and it is true now, as of olden time, men " do 
not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles." 
We must still learn " to keep our mouths as. 
with a bridle, while the wicked are before us." 
The scorpion tongue is yet close on our path ; 
the poisonous asp yet lurks among the lilies ; the 
wolf has not yet learned to dwell peaceably with 
the lamb, nor the leopard to lie down with the 
kid. "If thou seest the violent perverting judg- 
ment and justice, marvel not at the matter." Be 
not surprised into disquietude and passion; hav- 
ing been forewarned you may be forearmed by 
meekness and composure of spirit, and thus, in 
patience possess your souls, without resentment 
or fear, knowing that " when a man's ways please 
the Lord he maketh his enemies to be at peace 
with him." 

"He submits," says Lavater, "to be seen 
through a microscope, who is caught in a fit of 
passion." Steele says: "We should employ our 
passions in the service of life, not spend life in 



CUBE. 139 

the service of our passions." And Seneca re- 
marks : " Malice drinks half its own poison." 

Carefully consider the great importance to 
yourselves and others of securing by a kind, gen- 
tle, and obliging spirit the affection and confidence 
of those with whom you have to do. We are formed 
for society. It is natural for us to desire the 
companionship and love of our neighbor; and 
all our interests and welfare are best promoted 
by that mutual co-operation and assistance which 
one neighbor can so easily give to another 
Our personal happiness in time is largely pro- 
moted by a friendly intercourse with others. 
Duty and interest both imperatively demand that 
we should "be kindly aifectioned one to another 
with brotherly love." The first law of nature 
and the first and great commandment in grace 
is, that we should love one another. 

We need one another's help and sympathy in 
the great battle for health and life against sick- 
ness and death ; and still more, in the greater con- 
flict of truth and holiness against error and sin. 
The more kindness and sympathy we show to 
others, the greater reason we have to expect a 
return of gentleness and good will. When we 
fall under afflictions, or are overtaken by distress- 
ful calamities, we need the sympathy, counsels, 
and prayers, as well as many other friendly offices 



140 ANGER. 

of those around us, but how can we expect to 
realize any of those instances of kindness and 
neighborly love from them, if we have made 
them our enemies by cold indifference or mo- 
rose treatment ? 

The will of our Heavenly Father is, that we 
should show our love to him by our faith, our de- 
votion, and our zeal, and, also, by tenderly caring 
for one another. If we take pleasure in vexing 
and irritating each other along the paths of health 
and activity, what reason have we for expecting 
kindness and gentleness along the sloping hill- 
sides that lead us to the valley of departing 
shadows? When some of the courtiers of Philip 
the Good tried to persuade him to punish a prel- 
ate who had used him ill, he declined, saying : 
"It is a fine thing to have revenge in one's 
power, but it is a finer thing not to use it." 

If a man strikes me with a sword and inflicts 
a wound, suppose, instead of binding it up, I go 
round showing it to every body, and, after it has 
been bound up, I keep at work, constantly taking 
off the bandage and showing how long it is, and 
examining how deep it is, and making it fester, 
is there a person in the world who would not call 
me a fool for keeping up the irritation and hurt- 
ing myself? However, just such a fool is he, 
who, by dwelling no little injuries or slight in- 



CURE. 141 

suits, causes them to agitate and irritate his mind 
and influence his feelings. How much better 
were it to put a bandage on the wound and allow 
it to heal at once. Sometimes angry words wound 
more deeply than swords or spears. 

Be deeply humbled before God on account of 
your own follies, failures, and errors. We have 
already shown that pride is the parent and nurse 
of passion and resentment. True humility is a 
garment that is, upon all occasions, an orna- 
ment for all Christians. Solomon said : " Before 
honor is humility," and " by humility and the fear 
of the Lord are riches and honor and life." 
The apostle says: "Be clothed with humility," 
every day, and put on "the ornament of a meek 
and quiet spirit." The humble man does not 
regard many things as insults and injuries which 
are so regarded by a proud man. He is not so 
weak and unreasonable as to suppose that he only 
has opinions and inclinations that ought to be 
respected, and he does not imagine, as many do, 
that little things said or done were always meant 
to annoy and vex. 

Carefully consider the circumstances of the per- 
son who may have offended you. To engage in a 
contention with one who is your equal in talent, 
ability, and piety is, to say the least, doubtful. 
Why not propose instead of angry strife, a mu- 



142 ANGER. 

tual interchange of good wishes and agree to love 
and differ in opinion? To engage in strife with 
your superior argues a very great weakness, and 
borders on madness and folly. What if he be in 
the right and you in the wrong? To engage in 
a contention with your inferiors is greatly to 
lower yourself, and borders upon meanness. Why 
should you condescend to be angry and resent 
a slight under these circumstances? When Pisis- 
tratus was reviled by a poor drunkard inflamed 
with wine, his attendants urged him to avenge 
the insult; but the chief replied, that he was "no 
more moved by his reproaches than he should 
have been with a blind man who might happen 
to run against him without any knowledge or de- 
sign." The man who is intoxicated with anger 
deserves our pity as well as the one who is 
drunk with wine. 

Has a wicked man offended you by word or 
deed ? You need not at all to be surpised at that; 
he is serving his mater, whom he obeys, led cap- 
tive by the devil at his will. Why wonder that 
he ill-treats one of the Lord's children? It is 
his general character to *do so. Don't, on any 
account, allow your spirit to be ruffled by such a 
man. Was it a good man that offended you? 
It is a great pity that you should be disposed in 
any way to harbor resentment against one who is 



CUBE. 143 

of our family, a child of God, too, an heir of 
heaven. There is some mistake somewhere. You 
must wait in charity and love until the whole 
case has been mutually investigated. You can 
not afford to be angry at a good man. The law 
of brotherly love imperatively forbids you. Is it 
so, that a wise and learned man has, or is sup- 
posed to have done you an injustice and hurt 
your feelings? Let your respect for his abilities 
soften your resentment. Once, it is said, Lu- 
ther had wofully wronged and reviled Calvin. 
"Well," said Calvin, "let Luther hate me and 
call me a devil a, thousand times, yet will I love 
him, and acknowledge him to be a precious serv- 
ant of the Lord." Such a feeling as that honors 
our great Savior. Is it a weak and foolish 
man who committed the offense? Perhaps he 
knows no better. Is he rich ? His wealth lays 
him open to the most powerful temptations to 
forget himself. Is he poor? His poverty may 
have crushed his spirit and broken his temper. 
Let his poverty move you to compassion and for- 
giveness. Was it a child? His youth will plead 
in his behalf. You could not be angry at a 
child. Is he an aged person ? Then great allow- 
ance must be made for his years. You would not 
like to harbor an angry feeling against an aged 
person. In almost every case where our feelings 



144 ANGER. 

are hurt, a little careful consideration will always 
suggest some reason why our resentment may be 
modified. 

Passion is a fever, and, like most fevers, it 
leaves us weaker than it found us. The slave of 
sensual and selfish passions is miserable in all the 
activities of life; his fretfulness and peevishness 
make him unhappy, and drive away his friends 
and associates until he is left to die in solitude 
and contempt. Pride and angry passion are often 
our controlling impulses, and with the strong grasp 
of our resolute will we crush back into silence and 
obscurity our nobler and better feelings, and be- 
come less genial and more icy and hard hearted 
than before, until, by our own choice and act, we 
become a sort of moral suicide. Conquering the 
tongue and the temper is one of the last and 
highest attainments of Christian grace. 

Avoid the company and fellowship of passionate 
and furious men. It is an old saying, that " a 
man is known by the company he keeps." We 
almost instinctively learn the language, manners, 
and habits of those with whom we are on terms 
of intimacy. We easily drink in the spirit of 
those with whom we associate. How true it is 
that "evil communications corrupt good man- 
ners." Like the chameleon, we take a tincture or 
color from that which is near us. Familiarity 



CURE. 145 

with opium and tobacco eaters and smokers en- 
dangers our purity and good taste. Frequent 
intercourse with drunkards endangers our temper- 
ance and sobriety. Association with the lascivious 
endangers our chastity. Become familiar with 
the proud and insolent, and your humility and 
good manners are in peril. Become an associate 
with an angry, passionate man, and you will most 
likely lose your meekness, gentleness, and self- 
control. The wolf is no fit companion for the 
lamb, nor the leopard for the kid. "Make no 
friendship with an angry man, and with a 
furious man thou shalt not go : lest thou learn 
his ways, and get a snare to thy soul." Come 
not into his company, do not converse frequently 
or familiarly with him as with a friend; the in- 
fection of his example and influence is more 
dangerous and more deadly than that of the lep- 
rosy or the small-pox. " A furious man aboundeth 
in transgression." In the misery and unhappi- 
ness of men of violent tempers and ungoverned 
passions we learn how important it is to be mas- 
ter of our anger, and ever cultivate true gentle- 
ness of spirit and a forgiving disposition. 

Matthew Henry tells us of a married couple 
who were both of this warm, excitable tempera- 
ment, both naturally passionate, but who lived 

verv happily together, bv simply observing this 

10 



146 ANGER. 



rule, never to be both angry at the same time. 

A <a f^nwnpv SIP.VS • 



As Cowper says : 



"The kindest and the happiest pair, 
Will find occasion to forbear ; 
And something every day they live 
To pity, and perhaps forgive." 

That which is very bitter to endure may be 
very sweet to remember. It is better to overlook 
and forgive trivial offenses than to quarrel for 
them. By the last you are even with your ad- 
versary ; by the former you are far above and 
beyond him. 

Especially let aged persons carefully guard 
against angry, fretful, and irritable feelings. This 
is the period of life when infirmities and weak- 
nesses multiply, and little things, as little and as 
harmless in themselves as the "grasshopper" 
Solomon speaks of, become a burden. Many of 
our former friends and acquaintances have gone 
on before us to the grave, and some of our asso- 
ciates in former years have almost forgotten us, 
or are removed to other parts of the country. 
Children and loved ones have been taken from 
us, or as David sang it, " Lover and friend hast 
thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance 
into darkness." Some, it may be, have become 
ungrateful and disobedient, or cold and neglect- 
ful. Many disappointments have met us through 



CURE. 147 

life. The hail-storms of adversity have beaten 
heavily upon us, and times and circumstances 
have changed all around us. These all have a 
tendency to sour our tempers, and cause discon- 
tentment and uneasiness, and that uneasiness and 
dissatisfaction has a tendency to make us more or 
less unhappy in ourselves and disagreeable to 
others. In such circumstances, we need to watch 
against a positive, supercilious, fretful, uneasy, 
discontented spirit. We need great grace to en- 
able us to possess our souls in patience, and to 
preserve us calm, serene, composed, and thankful. 
Aged persons are apt to be soon thrown out of 
humor, to look and to feel angry, and to com- 
plain of slights and neglects, many of them, per- 
haps, only imaginary. Let there be no com- 
plaining in our streets, no praising of the days 
gone by as better, no fault finding with those 
in younger life, for they are the persons chiefly 
from whom we may expect consolation ; and it 
must be a very extraordinary degree of good na- 
ture and piety that will incline persons to help 
those who are always uneasy, dissatisfied, and 
complaining. 

But there are higher and nobler motives 
than these to prompt us in advanced life to 
meekness, patience, thankfulness. The bright 
hopes, cheering prospects, and personal comforts of 



148 ANGER. 

Christianity should calm our spirits, cheer our 

hearts, and 

"Lay the rough paths of peevish nature even, 
And open in each breast a constant heaven." 

All true believers know that the Gospel of 
Christ and the religion of Jesus afford a rich and 
abiding consolation and blessing amidst the sor- 
rows, disappointments, and afflictions attendant on 
our pilgrimage to the promised home. Instead 
of discontentment and repining at any humiliat- 
ing circumstances that may be allotted to us in 
our declining years, let us " draw water out of the 
wells of salvation," and " by patient continuance in 
well doing, seek for glory and honor and immor- 
tality." A young minister, who had not yet 
learned the first lesson of hospital work, asked an 
aged man who had long been a sufferer, " Of what 
persuasion are you, sir?" The venerable man, 
though in pain, looked up and said: "I am per- 
suaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, 
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, 
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor 
any other creature, shall be able to separate us 
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus 
our Lord." Such a glorious persuasion as this 
will smooth away all the little ripples of temper, 
check all the uprisings of petulancy, dissipate the 
gloom and loneliness of solitary years, and sup- 



CURE. 149 

port our weary steps and fatigued spirits up the 
slopes of Beulah's land to a glorious inherit- 
ance beyond. 

Cherish good humor and Christian cheerfulness all 
along the path of life. Anger and fretful ness of 
spirit prey upon the tender nerves and greatly 
injure the health and happiness, while cheerful- 
ness gives a sweetness to infancy, a loveliness to 
youth and a saintliness to old age. It fills the 
countenance with sunshine and gladness wherever 
you go. But the frown and scowl of anger boil- 
ing up in a proud or selfish heart manifested 
in daily, almost hourly, fretfulness, complaining, 
fault finding, angry criticism, spiteful comments, 
and uncharitable remarks on the motives and 
actions of others — how they thin the cheek, shrivel 
the face, sour and sadden the countenance ! There 
is then no joy in the heart, no nobility in the 
soul, no generosity in the nature, no songs of 
gratitude and praise upon the lip. The whole 
character is as cold as an iceberg, as hard as an 
Alpine rock, as arid as the great wastes of Sa- 
hara, and as miserable as an old age of vinegar 
and wormwood can possibly be. Why, my dear 
reader, should you make yourself miserable? 
Why inflict a lasting injury upon yourself be- 
cause some one has, perhaps, injured you, or 
failed, in some way, to meet your wishes or gratify 



150 ANGER. 

your feelings? Take a few large doses of the 
doxology, aud ring out from a cheerful heart a 
hearty " good morning." It will do you good, 
and it will do your friends good. There is a 
kind of inspiration in a right cheerful "good 
morning." It really chases the blues and fogs 
of anger and gloom away, and makes the morn- 
ing good, and is a kind of prophecy for a good 
day. There is more virtue in one sunbeam than 
in a whole hemisphere of fog and cloud and 
vapor. David well knew the power of song and 
music, as he used the harp and his doxologies to 
calm and quiet the moody and irritable mind of 
Saul. Homer tells of Chiron, who taught Achilles 
music and song to subdue his passions and mod- 
erate the violence of his disposition. Pythagoras 
quelled the perturbations of his own mind by the 
use of the harp. Sing then, ye aged ones, and 
gather in the young people to sing for you. The 
harder the task the more need of singing. A 
cheerful spirit will discern the silver lining of the 
darkest cloud, for behind all our troubles, dis- 
couragements, and annoyances shines the light 
of the divine promise. Man was not made to go 
through this world with his head bowed down 
with sorrow and repining. 

Look on the bright side of every thing, and 
cultivate the habit of cheerfulness and gratitude. 



CURE. 151 

Cherish the loving, the warm, and the genial, 
and not the dark or the morose. It is also a 
good thing to keep the hands, as well as the 
mind actively employed. The cheerful are the 
busy ; where trouble rings the bell or knocks at 
your door, he will generally retire if you send 
him word " engaged." And an active, busy life 
is usually a happy and cheerful life. Frogs do 
not croak in running water. Active minds are 
seldom troubled with gloomy forebodings. They 
come up only from the stagnant depths of a spirit 
unstirred by generous impulses or the blessed 
necessities of earnest, honest toil. 

A fretful person is the sport of circumstances, 
and trifles with human feelings. It is a kind of 
anger. Anger is the large siege guns, fretfulness 
the small arms. 

In recommending Christian cheerfulness as 
an antidote against the angry and fault-finding 
spirit, that too often beclouds the spirit of the 
aged and infirm, I must not be understood as 
confounding mirth with cheerfulness. Mirth is 
active merriment — a noisy kind of gayety or hi- 
larity, overflowing with the sportive; cheerful- 
ness is calm. It is full of serenity, or of that 
which makes cheerful and happy. Mirth is short 
lived, transient; cheerfulness fixed, abiding, per- 
manent. Men are often raised to the highest 



152 ANGER. 

transports of mirth, and are the next hour subject to 
the greatest depressions of melancholy. If cheer- 
fulness does not elate the mind to the transport 
of joy, it prevents it from falling into the depths 
of despair. Mirth is only an occasional elevation 
of spirits; cheerfulness is an habitual state of 
mind. Addison says : " I have always preferred 
cheerfulness to mirth. The latter I consider as 
an act, the former as a habit of the mind. Mirth 
is like a flash of lightning, which breaks through 
a gloom of clouds and glitters for a moment; 
cheerfulness keeps up a kind of noonday splen- 
dor in the mind, and fills it with a steady and 
perpetual serenity ." 

The man who has this cheerfulness of mind is 
not only easy in his own thoughts but a perfect mas_ 
ter of all his powers and faculties of soul; his 
imagination is clear, his judgment undisturbed, 
his temper even and unruffled. He comes with 
a relish to all those good things which nature has 
provided for him, tastes all the pleasures of crea- 
tion and Providence which are poured forth about 
him, and does not feel the full weight of those 
trials and evils which may befall him. This 
cheerfulness of mind naturally produces love and 
good will towards those around him. A cheerful 
mind is always affable and obliging, and pro- 
motes the same cheerful spirit in those who come 



CURE. 153 

within its influence. A man finds himself pleased, 
he hardly knows why, with the friendly cheerful- 
ness of his associates; it is like a sudden sunshine 
that awakens a secret delight in the mind with- 
out attending to it. The heart rejoices of its own 
accord, and naturally flows out into friendship 
and benevolence towards the person who has 
exercised so happy an effect upon it. 

This cheerfulness of spirit is a kind of incense 
of gratitude ever ascending, as it ought to do, to 
the great Author of all good. An inward Chris- 
tian cheerfulness is an implicit litany of praise 
and thanksgiving to God. It is an expression 
of acquiescence in the state of life in which God 
has placed us, and a heartfelt approbation of the 
divine will in his dealings with us. We are sent 
to the ant to learn industry, to the dove to learn 
innocency, to the serpent to learn wisdom. Why 
not to the robin-redbreast to learn equanimity 
and patience? She keeps the same sweet song 
of gratitude and love in the opening of Winter's 
frost and snow, as in the Springtime of happi- 
ness and plenty. Robin-redbreast sings in Sep- 
tember as Winter comes, as Avell as in April when 
Summer draws nigh. 

Let us be earnest and constant in prayer to God 
that he will so renew our nature, and so cleanse 
our hearts, and then so enrich us by his grace, 



154 ANGER, 

that all irregular tempers may be effectually sub- 
dued. We must be made " new creatures " in Christ 
Jesus. The old nature must be crucified, put to 
death, and all things must become new. " If any 
man be in Christ he is a new creature." To do 
this, his help is absolutely necessary, and that 
help is graciously promised. When the heart is 
emptied, swept, and garnished by the power 
of the Holy Spirit, anger that is sinful, and pas- 
sions that are unholy, and affections that are 
impure, have all given way before the besom of 
purification; and the cobwebs of pride and the 
stains of unbelief, with all that belongs to the 
old nature have yielded to the incoming of the 
new order of things. Fly, then, at once to the 
throne of grace, confess and bewail your sins, 
weaknesses, and follies, and yield yourself wholly 
and fully and forever to God and his service. 
Ask him to come in and abide with you, and 
order your affairs for his honor and glory; tell 
the Savior you are his now and forever ; that you 
are all his ; and that you are his by a perpetual 
covenant. Ask him to bring the Father with 
him, and to abide in you as in his own temple. 
Intercourse with the ever blessed Three, the 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, so elevates 
and refines the nature, so restores to harmony and 
peace, that all irritation, pride, anger, and self 



CURE. 155 

have no place there. "Grace reigns, through 
righteousness, unto eternal life." 

Near the end of the seventeenth century, a 
Turkish grandee, in Hungary, made a Christian 
nobleman his prisoner, and treated him, as the 
Turks usually did, with the utmost barbarity. The 
Christian slave — for such he was — was yoked with 
an ox and compelled to drag the plow. But the 
fortune of war changed, and the Turk fell into 
the hands of the Hungarians. The officers said 
to their enslaved countrymen : " Take your lib- 
erty and have your revenge upon your enemy, 
who was so cruel ." This was in perfect accord 
with the custom of the age and country. The 
Turk supposing, as a matter of course, that he 
would be speedily tortured to death, had already 
swallowed poison. When the messenger came to 
him from his former Christian slave, telling him, 
" I forgive you ; go in peace, you have nothing to 
fear," the Moslem was so impressed with this 
heavenly spirit that he proclaimed, with his dying 
breath, "I will not die a Moslem; but I die a 
Christian, for there is no religion but that of Jesus 
Christ which teaches forgiveness of injuries." 

Live under a constant sense of the indwelling 
'presence of God, the happy consciousness of divine 
acceptance. This may be called, "the full assur- 
ance of faith," or "the witness of the Spirit." 



156 ANGER. 

It is " Christ in you, the hope of glory." " And 
if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of 
sin ; but the Spirit is life because of righteous- 
ness." " Behold what manner of love the Father 
hath bestowed upon us." How great, how free, 
how purifying, how constraining, how enriching, 
how undeserved ! He gave his son to die for us, 
that we might be reconciled to God, and that 
being reconciled to him, we should be reconciled 
also to an offending brother. We have seen that 
to forgive is a condition of forgiveness. It is 
also a condition of retaining our happy relation- 
ship with God, for, "He that saith he is in the 
light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even 
until now. If a man say, I love God, and hateth 
his brother, he is a liar ; for he that loveth not 
his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love 
God whom he hath not seen ? For he that hateth 
his brother is in darkness, and walketh in dark- 
ness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because 
that darkness hath blinded his eyes." He gives 
us the spirit of peace and love to dwell and rule 
in all our hearts. The love of Christ is the 
sweetest and happiest constraint we can possibly 
be under, the strongest and most effectual incen- 
tive to love and good works. Dr. Cheyne, an 
eminent physician, has observed, that to love God, 
as it is the sovereign remedy of all miseries, 



CURE. 157 

so, in particular, it prevents the bodily disor- 
ders which the passions introduce by keeping the 
passions themselves restrained within due bounds. 
And, by the unspeakable joy and perfect se- 
renity it gives to the mind, it becomes the 
most powerful of all means of health and long 
life. The constant sense of the indwelling Spirit 
is a perpetual spring of cheerfulness and glad- 
ness of heart. It softens the asperities of our 
tempers, lessens our calamities, doubles, nay, 
quadruples, our joys, and clothes us with the 
meekness and gentleness of Christ. "The meek 
shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the 
poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One 
of Israel." 

The best remedy we can offer against sinful 
anger is, keep constantly before your mind the 
impressive example of our Lord Jesus Christ. We 
are creatures of imitation ; we almost naturally 
and instinctively choose a model for ourselves. 
We must have no exemplar but the man Christ 
Jesus. He has left us "an example that we 
should follow his steps." His life to us here is 
both a pattern of personal innocence and patient 
submission: "Who did no sin, neither was guile 
found in his mouth ; who, when he was reviled, 
reviled not again ; when he suffered, he threat- 
ened not; but committed himself to him that 



158 ANGER. 

judgeth righteously." The example of Christ is 
most proper to form us to holiness, it being abso- 
lutely perfect, and accommodated to our present 
state. There is no example of a mere man that 
is to be found who could be followed without limi- 
tation. " Be ye followers of me," says St. Paul, 
"as I also am of Christ." But the example of 
Christ is absolutely perfect. His conversation was 
a living law. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, 
and separate from sinners. His example is also 
most accommodated to our present state. The 
divine nature is the supreme rule of moral per- 
fection ; for we are commanded to be holy, as 
God is holy. But such is the obscurity of our 
minds and the weakness of our hearts, that the 
pattern w T as too high and glorious to be imitated by 
us. Yet, though we had not strength to ascend to 
him, yet he had the goodness and love to descend 
to us; and in this earthly state, and in our na- 
ture, to set before us a pattern more fully fitted 
to our capacity, so that the divine attributes are 
tempered, modified, and sweetened in the Son 
of man who was the Son of God incarnate ; and 
being united with the graces suitable and proper 
for the human nature, are more perceptible to our 
minds and more imitable by us. Jesus said : " I 
have given you an example, that ye should do as 
I have done unto vou." This is one of the 



CURE. 159 

means by which our Redeemer restores his people 
to holiness, purity, and power. 

One of the Savior's most obvious and most 
impressive features of character was his meek- 
ness. In him there was a patience which no 
provocation, however sudden or ingenious, could 
disturb ; a magnanimity which the most shameful 
insult could not ruffle; a gentleness from which 
no manifestation of folly could extract an unad- 
vised word. In him, everywhere, and upon all 
occasions, men saw what they could scarcely 
understand, and yet they were made to mar- 
vel. Though his chosen twelve were sometimes 
strangely dull of comprehension, he never lost 
temper with them ; though Judas, the treasurer, 
was dishonest and disloyal, he did not bring any 
railing accusation against him ; though Philip 
had been so long time with him, and had not 
understood him, he did not angrily dismiss him 
from his company. When Peter, though tenderly 
and lovingly forewarned, shamefully denied him, 
it w 7 as not by a frown that would have withered 
him, but by a tender and affectionate glance that 
melted him, that he was met. And thus it was 
with his enemies. It was not by the lightning 
from heaven that scorched them, but by the love 
and grace from his pierced heart, that he sub- 
dued them. 



160 ANGEll. 

There are many Christians who are, in this 
respect, very far from possessing the mind of 
Christ; they are deeply afflicted with their evil 
tempers. They either can not or do not try to 
possess "the mind that was in Christ." There 
are some persons who indulge occasionally in fits 
of anger, a sort of periodical overflowing of their 
bad tempers, a kind of chronic evil spirit ; oth- 
ers are haunted by habitual, daily, life-long 
sourness of temper. To them religion is a kind of 
salad, that must be served up with more or less 
vinegar. This feature in the Christian life of 
many is not sufficiently thought of in connection 
with experiences. How much sad and sour tem- 
per there is connected with professing Christians. 
The native bitterness of the heart has not been 
taken away. It is only partially counteracted, 
like the preserved crab-apple, whose nature has not 
been changed, but simply overcome with sugar; re- 
move the sugar and all the acid is there still. 
Some people seem to think the most that can be 
done for those unholy tempers and ungovernable 
passions is to hold them partially in check. The 
one class is generally calm and cool, though, on 
special occasions when trial or provocation comes, 
they are lashed into a magnificent tempest; the 
other is like the Bosphorus, where counter cur- 
rents create a chopping sea, and a ceaseless whirl. 



CURE. 161 

The one is Hecla, for long intervals silent and 
cold as a granite peak, and suffering even the 
snowflakes to fall on its cold crater till you almost 
forget that it is a burning mountain, and then, on 
some sudden and unlooked-for disturbance, hurl- 
ing forth fire, smoke, and ashes with terrific noise. 
The other is Stromboli, a perpetual volcano, mut- 
tering and quaking, steaming and hissing night and 
day, in a way which makes strangers nervous, and 
ever and anon spinning through the air a red-hot 
rock or a spurt of molten lava, sparkling as it flies. 
But either form — the paroxysmal fury and the 
perennial fretfulness — is inconsistent with the 
wisdom "which is from above,. which is peace- 
able, gentle, easy to be entreated." In neither 
case is there any resemblance, even remotely, to 
our loving Lord, who at all times, and under all 
circumstances, was a model of meekness and self- 
possession. No disciple can resemble his Lord 
who does not gain so complete victory over him- 
self, and have grace whereby he can maintain a 
kindly feeling to all around him. Grace was in- 
fused into the mind and heart of Jesus in such 
measure that "never man spake like this man," 
was an enemy's confession. In him there was 
conscious inherent power, which shone out in a 
mildness and a brilliancy all its own. His gen- 
tleness made him great, and so tender and com- 

11 



162 ANGER. 

passionate were his manner and his spirit, that 
frail mortality could pillow its head upon the 
bosom when the Shekinah dwelt within. The 
children of the King would do well to resemble 
him in temper and in spirit. They should be 
mild and patient, always accessible, and, like the 
Sun of righteousness, should carry such healing in 
their wings as to make their presence the har- 
binger of joy. It was said of one, " I can not 
remain longer in his company, or I, too, will be- 
come a Christian ;" of another, " that he carried 
the whole long-meter Doxology in his face;" of 
another, " that it was as good as a sermon to look 
at him." The children of God should so resem- 
ble Christ as to make it true of him as was said 
of an English saint : 

"A sweet, attractive kind of grace, 

A full assurance given by looks, 
Continual comfort in a face 

The lineament of Gospel-books ; 
For sure that countenance can not lie, 
Whose thoughts are written in the eye." 

" When on the fragrant sandal-tree 
The woodman's ax descends, 
And she who bloomed so beauteously, 

Beneath the keen stroke bends — 
E'en on the edge that brought her death, 
Dying, she breathes her sweetest breath, 
As if in token of her fall 
1 Peace to her foes, and love to all.' 



CURE. 163 

How hardly man this lesson learns, 

To smile and bless the hand that spurns ; 

To see the blow, and feel the pain, 

But render only love again. 

This spirit ne'er was given on earth : 

One had it — he of heavenly birth ; 

Reviled, rejected, and betrayed, 

No curse he breathed, no plaint he made ; 

But when in death's deep pang he sighed, 

Prayed for his murderers— and died." 

— Edmonston. 



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